The responding of “Amen”, “Yehei shemeih rabbah”, “Barechu” and “Kedushah” are matters which stand at the top of the world, and people treat them with a complete lack of respect. Some act like deaf people who do not hear, and others like dumb people who cannot open their mouths to respond, and yet others respond with a shortened form of Amen or an Amen without the “nun” at the end or an Amen not attached to the blessing (these are called Amen Chatufah, Ketufah and Yesomah). It is well-known that the holy Zohar is very strict about the responding of Amen to the extent that they said that one who hears a blessing and does not concentrate when responding Amen is referred to in the verse “And those who denigrate me will be made light”. It follows from this that it is not sufficient to recite Amen, for one needs also to concentrate on the words which one is saying, be it on a blessing for praise when during the recital of Amen that he is saying “The blessing that I have just heard is true!”, and if the Amen is on a prayer he should intend when saying Amen that it should mean “Amen so shall be the will!”, that the prayer should be fulfilled, and in the event that the Amen is on something which is both blessing and prayer he should intend when saying Amen to mean “It is true and so shall be His will”. About this matter every person should worry for who can say that he always concentrates. Nevertheless, every person should strengthen himself to at least add once more to perform the commandment in its correct fashion, to give pleasure to his Creator. He should be careful to avoid an “Amen Chatufah” (where he answers before the person making the blessing has finished), an “Amen Ketufah” (when he misses out the letter “Nun” at the end of the word) and an “Amen yesomah” (when he does not hear the actual blessing and nevertheless answers Amen, or he says Amen long after the end of the blessing).
Sunday
כ"ט סיון התשפ"ו
