Q. I'm learning the MB (Mishna Berura) 104:5, sif katan 17 where it discusses; where in the Amidah to re-start if you made a hefsek (stop or interruption) of a certain length. It seems that there are 3 lengths of hefsek discussed. 1) If the hefsek is long enough to say the whole Amidah, you start from the beginning. 2) If the hefsek is very short (not even long enough to say the bracha you are in), then you restart exactly mid-bracha where you made the hefsek. 3) If its in between these amounts, then you would re-start at the beginning of that bracha that you made the hefsek in. Assuming my understanding is correct, what is the halacha for someone who pauses in the middle of one of the Amidah brachas in order to listen to kedusha or kaddish. This pause (hefsek) is usually longer than it would take one to gave one of the brachos, so seems to fall into 3. So should one then re-start the bracha he was in after this type of hefsek.
A. A. Shulchan Aruch (O.H. 104: 7) and Mishna Berura (ibid. 28) rule that stopping the davening and listening with intention to the kedusha and kadish during the amida, it is considered as having answered it. Yet, it is not a hefsek or an interruption at all, unlike the other situations mentioned at the beginning of the siman.
Therefore, Horav Shlomo Miller's Shlit'a opinion is that it does not matter how long you interrupt the brocho you are reciting to listen to kedusha or kadish, since it does not constitute a hefsek, you would continue at the same place were you stopped. The Rov also indicated. as is obvious from Mishna Berura, that the hefsek lengths mentioned apply to interruptions done "beones," accidentally, which are not in one's control. They do not usually apply to voluntary intentional breaks, when one may not be "masiach daas" or loosing one's purpose and intent.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as advised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit'a
Important Numbers
