Listening to Kaddish via Telephone
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Question
If someone cannot come to the synagogue, can they listen to the Kaddish recited in the synagogue via telephone and respond 'Amen'?
Answer
One can respond 'Amen' at home to the Kaddish recited in the synagogue, as long as the response is made immediately after the recitation of the Kaddish.
Source
The Gemara in Sukkah, page 51b, tells of the honor of Hashem in Alexandria of Egypt, where there was a large crowd, and they could not hear from the chazzan, and when it was time to respond 'Amen', someone would wave a cloth, and the entire congregation would respond 'Amen'. Tosafot wrote that this is not considered an 'orphaned Amen', since everyone knew which blessing they were responding to, even though they did not hear the blessing.
Similarly, one who hears the Kaddish via telephone can respond 'Amen'.
However, some have written that since there are impure places and toilets between the synagogue and the responder, one cannot respond 'Amen', as written in Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim, Siman 55, Paragraph 20: "If ten are in one place and recite Kaddish and Kedusha, even one who is not with them can respond. And some say there should not be an interruption of impurity or idolatry." Yet, the Mishnah Berurah there in s.k. 62 wrote that one can be lenient with Kaddish and Kedusha and respond even if there is an interruption of impure places.
Moreover, this is not so similar to the ruling of the Shulchan Aruch because, via telephone, there is no interruption between the hearing and the listener, only between the one who recited the Kaddish and the listener, and it is not so similar to what is written in the Shulchan Aruch, where one hears from the person himself at a distance and there is an interruption of impure places between them.
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