Juxtaposing Geulah to Tefillah on Shabbos

The Poskim disagree whether there is an obligation to juxtapose Geulah to Tefillah on Shabbos. 85 Practically one should be stringent and not interrupt. However, the Poskim are lenient to allow interruption in some situations. These include:

Question: Does one who is about to begin Shemoneh Esrei answer Amen when he hears either the chazzan or another person recite the berachah of Ga’al Yisrael?

Discussion: Shulchan Aruch92 rules that one does not answer Amen. Rema,93 however, disagrees, writing that the minhag is to answer Amen. Now, the primary halachah for Ashkenazim follows the Rema, and a person who completed Ga’al Yisrael and has not yet started Shemoneh Esrei should answer Amen. 94 Many, however, avoid the issue, by creating a situation in which they will not have to answer Amen. 95 The Poskim enumerate different ways in which this can be done:96

Some, however, question this minhag for several reasons:

85 See Rema 111:1 with Mishnah Berurah 8.

86 Mishnah Berurah 111:9.

87 Mishnah Berurah 66:50.

88 See Tehillah LeDavid 111:5-7; Ishei Yisrael 17, footnote 91.

89 See Interruptions During Birchos Kerias Shema for the practical differences between bein haperakim and be’emtza haperek.

90 Pri Megadim, Mishbetzos Zahav 111:3.

91 Sha’arei Teshuvah 66:13. Note, that this ruling differs from his ruling in 111:1.

92 66:8.

93 Ibid.

94 Tehillah LeDavid 111:7 notes that on Shabbos all would agree that one should answer Amen.

95 Mishnah Berurah 66:35.

96 Ibid.

Mishnah Berurah also cites another option, that there are those who pause by Shirah Chadashah or Tzur Yisrael to avoid answering Amen after having completed the berachah of Ga’al Yisrael. He notes that this practice, though, is incorrect, for, with limited exceptions, Amen is not said when one is be’emtza haperek.

97 Mishnah Berurah ibid.

98 Note that one who begins Shemoneh Esrei slightly before the chazzan is still considered to properly fulfill tefillah betzibbur (ibid.).

99 Chasan Sofer II, Sha’ar Hatefillah, 10; Da’as Notah I, p. 300 citing the custom of the Chazon Ish. R’ Yechiel Michel Feinstein (cited in Da’as Notah ibid.) attested that this was the common practice in Lithuania.

100 Emes LeYa’akov 66, footnote 93; Gevuros Eliyahu, Orach Chaim 15, 19-20.

101 Kovetz MiBeis Levi VI, p. 24, note 10.

102 Beis Baruch 20:56.