Question: Is one obligated to stand while the shliach tzibbur repeats the Shemoneh Esreh? I have observed that some people stand during the whole repetition of the Amida while others sit most of the time.
Menachem
Answer: Last week we noted a dispute in Meseches Rosh Hashana (33b). Rabban Gamliel maintains that the chazzan’s repetition of the Amidah takes care of everyone’s obligation to pray while the Tanna Kamma maintains that everyone must pray on his own. We also noted the importance of each individual paying attention and responding to chazarat hashatz.
The Mishnah Berurah argues that the principle of “shomea’a ke’oneh” requires the congregation to stand during chazarat hashatz. The Shulchan Aruch HaRav and Aruch HaShulchan reach different conclusions on this matter while Harav Yitzchak Yosef cites Rav Eliashiv as being very critical of those who walk about during chazarat hashatz.
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In Ta’amei Haminhagim (p.49, siman 98), Rav Avraham Yitzchak Sperling of Lvov states in the name of the Levush that after a person finishes Shemoneh Esreh, he should take three steps back and stay there until the chazzan says Kedushah. The Levush does not mention any further obligation to stand and the Mechaber doesn’t mention standing at all; that is perhaps why most people nowadays sit during chazarat hashatz.
The Rema, however, cites the Rambam to the effect that a person must stand during chazarat hashatz.
The Mechaber (Orach Chayim 134:1) writes as follows concerning the “V’hu Rachum” that we say on Mondays and Thursdays: “V’hu Rachum is to be said in a loud voice and if a person did not stand while saying it, he is classified as ‘one who has breached the wall’ [i.e., disobeyed an enactment of the sages].” The Rema adds: “And such is our custom – to say it while standing but in a whisper…”
Why does the Rema bother commenting at all when he seems to agree with the Mechaber? (The Rema usually only comments when the Ashkenazic practice differs from that of the Sefardic and Oriental communities.) The Magen Avraham writes that the Rema mentions saying “V’hu Rachum” in a whisper “because V’hu Rachum was enacted to correspond to the Amidah.” Logic would dictate that, since the two correspond to one another, we should stand when saying “V’hu Rachum” because we stand for the Amidah. But that is not what the Magen Avraham states. He states: “And we say V’hu Rachum while standing because it contains the words ‘Chatanu – We have sinned,’ the text of the viduy.”
The fact that the Magen Avraham does not use the correspondence between the Amidah and “V’hu Rachum” to mandate standing for “V’hu Rachum” (employing a different rational entirely) demonstrates that standing during chazarat hashatz is not imperative according to the Magen Avraham.
The Mechaber presumably agrees since he says nothing about having to stand for chazarat hashatz even though the Rambam, whose rulings he often relies on, does. The Aruch HaShulchan is also lenient, positing that people who are weak or indisposed are exempt from standing. This leniency might extend to all people in our day and age who are considered weak and cannot be expected to stand during the entire repetition of the Amidah.
(To be continued)