One Word: Amen

Imagine that you were given a master key that would open any vault in the world. Or, if you’re like me, imagine that you were given a master key that would open any jewelry store in the world! Any time, day or night, you could use that key to open the doors, breeze past the security guard, and take as much money or diamond jewelry as you want!  Fill up your pockets, purses, and garbage bags, take them home, and then come back for more! It’s like an all-you-can-eat buffet, except you don’t actually eat anything. Let me ask you…if you were given such an unbelievable opportunity, would you casually walk over to the heap of gold bars in the safe and slowly put them in your bags, or would you run like a madman (or woman) towards those glittering 10-carat diamond necklaces and stuff them in your bags faster than those lettuce-crazed contestants on “Supermarket Sweep”? Tough question, I know. But seriously, we are given such an opportunity every day, and most of us aren’t even aware of this! It’s literally like we’ve been given the winning lottery ticket, and we didn’t think to check our numbers!
 
What is this lottery ticket, you ask? To sum it up in one word, it is “AMEN”. Amen? That’s my winning numbers? How is this so? What is so special about this word? Let me first begin by quoting the Holy Zohar. In Parashat Vayelech, The Zohar states, “Open the gates and let the righteous nation enter- the nation that is ‘shomer emunim’. The nation that has emuna.”  The Zohar continues, “Don’t read it as ‘emunim’; read it as ‘shomer amenim’- the nation that is careful in answering Amen.” Amen comes from the root word “emuna”, faith. Not only are we hoping for the prayer to be answered when we say Amen, but we are also expressing our faith in the truth of those words that were just said. “Amen is the master key that opens up the gates to ALL blessings,” says Rabbi Eli Mansour.  This one word can give you every blessing you want in life.
 
Are you looking for a soulmate? Do you need shalom bayit? Are you hoping to have children? Do you need sustenance? Do you want good health and longevity? (Goodness, I sound like an insurance commercial!) Well, all of these things and more can be yours for the bargain price of just one Amen!  In the book, Just One Word, by Esther Stern, Rabbi Simcha Zissel of Kelm explains: “It would have been worthwhile for Hashem to have created the entire universe so that one Jew would say, ‘Baruch Hu u’baruch Shemo.’” A mishna in Avos tells us that one moment of spiritual pleasure in the World to Come contains more than all of the physical pleasure ever experienced in this world. With this in mind, Rabbi Zissel states that the reward for one “Baruch Hu u’baruch Shemo” is guaranteed eternal pleasure in the World to Come. He continues: “One Amen is 1,000 times greater than the reward for one ‘Baruch Hu u’baruch Shemo!’” Wait- it gets better! One “Amen! Yehei Shemei Rabba…” is 1,000 times greater than one Amen, making it 1,000,000 times greater than one “Baruch Hu u’baruch Shemo”! Then he goes on to say that one word of Torah study is 1,000 times greater than one “Amen! Yehei Shemei Rabba…”!
 
These are mind-boggling numbers that we can’t practically grasp. Can you imagine all of the joy that you have experienced so far in your life? Now imagine that happiness condensed into one hour. You would be bursting with pleasure! “Now,” explains Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler, “Add to that all of the pleasure experienced by everyone in the history of creation! Even this is still not as pleasurable as one moment of pleasure in the World to Come!” Reish Lakish, in Yeshaya, states, “The gates of Gan Eden are opened for all those who answered Amen with all of their might!” The Holy Shlah writes, “He who listens to a blessing and answers ‘Amen’ with kavanah, or focus and intention, creates in the heavens a tremendous amount of holiness and shefa.” What is shefa? One might compare it to a spiritual pipe that delivers an abundance of blessings each time it is opened. What opens that pipe? Among other things, the Amen!
 
What is the secret of the Amen? The Gemara, in Tractate Berachot, states that one who answers Amen is even greater than the one who said the blessing. What a seemingly backwards statement! The one who said the blessing seems to be like the main character, while the one that says Amen might be compared to a supportive character.  “If anything, maybe the guy saying Amen deserves an assist for doing so, but the main credit would seem to belong to the one saying the blessing,” Rabbi Mansour states. How is it possible that it is the opposite? The Maharsha explains using the following example: An army battalion fights a battle against an enemy unit. They are locked in a bloody battle, with each side fighting it’s hardest to be victorious. Then, a second battalion rides in and turns the tide with another line of attack. That reinforcement allows them to win the war and raise the flag of victory.  Upstairs, there is also an ongoing spiritual war being waged every day. There exists a Spiritual Supreme Court, where there are indeed defending angels and prosecuting angels- it’s like a spiritual version of Law & Order, except none of the lawyers are greedy and corrupt. When we say a blessing, we are in essence asking for a blessing to be granted to us. The prosecuting angel stands all day long making its case as to why we should not receive that blessing. Being that we’re no angels ourselves, we have made his case pretty easy! At the moment we say a blessing, it rises up and the bloody battle begins. We are asking for a blessing from The True Judge. The angel protests, “He doesn’t deserve this blessing! Look at all of his transgressions!” Now we’re in a gridlock- both sides are trying hard to defeat the opponent. But then, we hear a voice! “Wait!” someone yells as he flies through the double doors of the courtroom, waving a bunch of papers in his hand, “There is new compelling evidence as to why this person deserves the blessing!” What is this new evidence that causes us to win our case? It’s the Amen!!
 
What an unbelievably powerful tool! Even though we may not deserve all of the blessings that we ask for, just on the merit of the Amen do we receive them! With just one Amen, we open up the gates of Heaven and cause the abundance of blessings to be showered on the entire world! Furthermore, the Chofetz Chaim wrote, “The ‘Amen Yehei Shemei Rabba’ that the men and young boys say in shul save thousands of people from death! Those who encourage others to do so have a tremendous merit, since they are effecting salvations for Klal Yisrael!” WOW! This makes me want to jump out of my chair and run from shul to shul, telling everyone how powerful the Amen is! Did you know that even the Holy Arizal used to go from minyan to minyan just in order to answer Amen? The Ashminover Rebbe used to do the same. Why did the Rebbe do this instead of spending his precious time studying Torah? After all, isn’t Torah study supposed to be the greatest use of one’s time? Actually, during these times when he went around answering “Amen”, he was really annulling harsh decrees on the world and instead causing an abundance of blessing to be brought down from Above. In many shuls, people have made it a custom to get the young boys to gather together to answer “Amen, Yehei Shemei Rabba” in order to help them overcome tremendous difficulties. Mrs. Stern provides numerous examples of how people with failing health have miraculously recovered and lived way beyond the doctors’ expectations, just from the merit of instituting this practice in the shuls! Also, people who have been childless have also used this segula in order to be blessed with children! If you are interested in starting this practice in your shul, please don’t forget to bring small treats for the boys! What is so special about the boys participating? As we know, children have a spiritual purity that most adults just don’t have anymore; this makes their prayers and Amens especially powerful. There is no garbage to get in the middle of their innocent souls and pure intentions. Their prayers rise up and split the heavens, reaching all the way to the Throne of Glory!
 
Let’s take a closer look at the Kaddish. What makes it so special? I’m no rabbi, but I can offer a few answers that I have discovered. To begin with, we should know that the Shechina, or the feminine aspect of The Creator, is in exile with us. She suffers from tremendous pain as a result of the pain that we are experiencing. However, the Kaddish prayer transforms that pain felt by the Shechina into joy. We cannot with our limited brains understand this type of pain. But, when we answer “Amen, Yehei Shemei Rabba”, we arouse tremendous compassion on the entire world. “We are also crying out for the suffering of the Shechina,” explains Mrs. Stern.  The more we make an effort to feel the pain of the separation between the Shechina and The Creator, the closer we bring ourselves to the Final Redemption.  The Holy Zohar explains the connection of the Kaddish to the Mashiach: “Above the Heavenly abode of those who answer Amen Yehei Shemei Rabba stands the sanctuary of Mashiach. He ascends due to their merit, and comes to stand among them.” The time right before the Final Redemption is a time of “chevlei Mashiach”, or the birthpangs of the Mashiach. What does this mean?  Just like in labor, the most intense contractions occur just before the mother receives her most precious gift. We are in that time of intense challenges, many of which we feel we can’t overcome. This is the time we need to focus more than ever on bringing blessings and protection for ourselves, our families, and the entire world.
 
There are three major ways we can actively do this: First, we should perform acts of kindness. Second, we should study Torah. Third, we should answer “Amen, Yehei Shemei Rabba”! Not only can this powerful phrase bring us tremendous salvations- it can actually overturn verdicts! The Gemara in Tractate Shabbat states, “R. Yehoshua ben Levi said: ‘Everyone who answers Amen! Yehei Shemei Rabba with all his strength (will merit that) his verdict is annulled- even a decree of seventy years!’” Imagine- even once a verdict has been passed on us from the Heavenly Supreme Court, one “Amen! Yehei Shemei Rabba” can overturn that verdict! Can you imagine such a thing happening in the U.S. Supreme Court, or any other court for that matter? Absolutely not! You’d have to go through an appeals court, maybe get a retrial if it is allowed to go that far. This could cost thousands and thousands of dollars in legal fees, not to mention the extra months or years you might spend trying to overturn that verdict. In the meantime, you’ve got to serve out your sentence! But with one simple phrase said with the proper intention of connecting to God, we can instantly overturn a Heavenly decree against us! This is unbelievable mercy! One more word about the Kaddish- a person with deceased parents uses this powerful prayer to elevate their souls. In the spiritual world, one cannot move up on his own; only by the merit of the good deeds their children perform on earth can they be elevated. This is the most powerful way to elevate the souls of those that have moved on.
 
Let’s now take a look at the Shema prayer. How does this connect with the Kaddish? Before Yaakov Avinu passed away, he wanted to share with his sons the secrets of the end of days and the coming of Mashiach. However, God took away his divine inspiriation. As a result, Yaakov feared that maybe one of his sons was not worthy. They thus replied, “Shema Yisrael…”, to which he answered, “Baruch Shem Kevod…” Another version of the story is in Targum Yerushalmi, which states that Yaakov responded with “Yehei Shemei Rabba…” So which one is it? Amazingly, these two statements are one and the same! However, “Baruch Shem Kevod” is a prayer that belongs to the angels. They are the only ones who can say this praise out loud. We are supposed to say this quietly because this is their song.  Only on Yom Kippur are we allowed to say it out loud, because on that day we are compared to the angels. In order not to arouse their jealousy, we say the Aramaic translation of this phrase, which is none other than “Yehei Shemei Rabba”! This one phrase is the most elevated of praises we can use to praise God.
 
Another powerful aspect of the Amen is the gift we can give our children through this one word. The Ramah says, “A child merits the World to Come the first time he says Amen.” With just one word, we have now given our children the gift of the World to Come! Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe, in his amazing book, “Planting and Building: Raising a Jewish Child”, discusses the secret to helping our children develop emuna from a young age. That secret is in the Amen! When we speak with others, children pay close attention to what we say, how we say it, and the response we get from the other person. But, when a child sees us say a blessing with focus and intention, apparently speaking with no one, this excites their curiosity. Who are we speaking with? Through our concentration on saying our blessings, the child can tell that it’s Someone Important that we’re speaking with, though he’s not sure who it is. Saying a blessing is a cornerstone in emuna, because it attests to our faith in the concept of God and our belief that He hears our prayers and is personally involved in our lives.  As the child’s comprehension develops, he will begin to ask questions, such as, “Who made the sun and moon? Where did everything come from?” Now is the perfect to begin a simple explanation of The Creator. By accustoming the child to answer Amen to our blessings, we are not only putting him on the path of a strong connection with God, we are also helping him to develop emuna through our example of making a connection with something he can’t see or understand with his five senses. Eventually, children tend to emulate their parents (for better and for worse)- so what a great way to help the child realize that there is a Creator who is beyond the realm of logic and rationale!
 
Dear readers, I hope that this information will inspire you- not just to focus on saying “Amen” more, but to share this vital, life-changing information with others. With this information you have been given the tools to not only overcome tremendous obstacles in your lives; you now have a responsibility to help others do the same. We are all in the same boat- we all want to experience the end of chaos and suffering. We all want to experience the glory of The Holy Temple and a return of the Divine Presence to our midst. So run, don’t walk to your shul, school, or women’s group- make photocopies, pass it out, do anything you can to share this information with Klal Yisrael. Imagine all of the merits and blessings you will be receiving for yourselves and your loved ones just by sharing the power of the Amen! Now that I have handed you the baton, take it and run! May we all play an instrumental part in the bringing the Mashiach speedily and in our days, Amen!