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When someone makes a bracha and you hear it, are you yotzer because you heard a bracha, or because the mevarech said it on your behalf? The shiur develops two opposing approaches to shomea k'oneh—the Rambam (רמב"ם) versus the Tur and Shulchan Aruch—showing that according to the Rambam, answering amen creates your own bracha rather than joining someone else's.
This shiur explores the fundamental principle of shomea k'oneh and presents two radically different understandings of how a person can fulfill an obligation by hearing another person's bracha. The analysis centers on a detailed reading of the Rambam (רמב"ם) in Hilchos Brachos and how it differs from the approach of the Tur and Shulchan Aruch. The shiur begins with the Kesef Mishneh's questions on the Rambam. The Rambam states that if you hear a bracha, you're yotzer even without answering amen, but if you do answer amen, harei zeh k'mevarech. The Kesef Mishneh asks: if you're already yotzer through hearing, why would you need to answer amen? His first answer is that amen has a higher level—it's k'mevarech while shomea is slightly less. But this is tremendously difficult: once you're yotzer through hearing, how can you answer amen on your own bracha? And how can it be k'mevarech if you're already yotzer?
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Hilchos Brachos, Sukkah 38b
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