The Bracha “Borei Pri Ha-Gefen” and When “Amen” Is More Important Than the Bracha and Overrides All Rules of Grammar

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef: When “Amen” Is More Important Than a Blessing and Overrides Even the Rules of Grammar

The Gemara states that one who answers “Amen” is greater than the one who recites the bracha. (Berachot 53b) “Amen” completes the blessing, affirming the praise that has just been recited. Our Sages also compare “Amen”, recited after a blessing, to the royal seal affixed to a decree. Without this seal, the decree is incomplete and lacks authority. When a blessing is not accompanied by the word “Amen”, it lacks completion. Such a bracha is called an orphaned bracha. Stories of Tzadikim There are different minhagim regarding the bracha over wine: Ashkenazim recite, “Borei pri ha-gafen,” while Sephardim recite, “Borei pri ha-gefen.” Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (zechuto yagen aleinu) insisted that Sephardim recite “ha-gefen,” in accordance with the established minhag. However, Ashkenazi rabbis insisted that, according to all the rules of Hebrew grammar, one must pronounce it “ha-gafen.” After all, if a word can be read with a kamatz vowel as “a” or as “e” (with a segol), then when it appears at the end of a sentence and concludes it, it is pronounced only as “a.” The Rishon LeZion retorted: “Who said that the bracha ends with the word ‘gefen’? Berachot always end with the word “Amen”, so the word ‘gefen’ is not the last one.”   (Based on a lesson by Rabbi Israel Yakobov, “Amen”)