Amen to Kaddish via Phone
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Question
My wife is pregnant, it's the yahrzeit of her father, and she wants to stay at a distance from the grave, not seeing or hearing, and wants to answer amen to the Kaddish via phone. Is it possible?
Answer
Hello Rabbi
She can answer amen.
Source
In the Gemara (Sukkah 51b), it is said that in Alexandria of Egypt, there was such a large synagogue that they could not hear the voice from the public emissary, and when it was time to answer amen, they waved a cloth, and thus the people knew when to answer amen. The Tosafot wrote that this is not considered an orphaned amen, as everyone knew which blessing they were answering, and only did not hear the blessing. From here, it follows that one who hears Kaddish via phone can answer amen.
[However, some wrote that since there is an interruption between the synagogue and the responder by impurities and toilets, one cannot answer amen again. As written in Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim, siman 55, paragraph 20: "If ten people are in one place and say Kaddish and Kedusha, even one who is not with them can answer. And some say there should not be an interruption of impurity or idolatry." However, the Mishnah Berurah there, s.k. 62, wrote that one can be lenient in Kaddish and Kedusha to answer even if there is an interruption of impurities. Moreover, this is not so similar to the rule of the Shulchan Aruch because, on the phone, there is no interruption between the hearing and the listener, but only between the one who said the Kaddish and the listener, and it is not so similar to what the Shulchan Aruch wrote, that one hears from the person himself at a distance and there is an interruption of impurities between them].