Question: How should we answer Amen to Kaddish when there is more than one person reciting the Kaddish?

Answer: It is very common to be davening with a minyan and there are a few people saying Kaddish (our minhag is that when there are a few chiyuvim, they all say Kaddish together, word for word[1]).  An issue my arise if one chiyuv recites the Kaddish "quicker" than the others are able to. If this happens, we can have a few moments between answeringAmen . Do we wait for the last person to finish and then answer "one" Amen, or should we answer each Amen separately?

The issues involved are 1) answering an "Amen Yesoma" (saying Amen when we did not hear the Bracha or waiting some time before answering Amen[2] ), 2) answering Amen "twice" (one after the other) which might be construed as saying there are two "powers" on earth -[3] .

The poskim[4] write that if the people who are saying Kaddish all finish within the Halachic time period of "Toch Kedai Dibbur" (time it takes to say the three words "Shalom Alaecha Rebbe" [5] then we should answer Amen only once[6]. However, if one person finishes after the time period given above,  than we should answer a separate Amen for each[7].

In addition, if a person is davening with a specific minyan, and he hearsKaddish  (or anything of keddusha) from an adjacent minyan, he does not need to answer Amen to for the Adjacent minyan[8].      

Daily inspiration:

Each person creates an atmosphere of unity through the understanding that everything in this world is a give and take relationship. We all have our own unique potential. With this potential, we complement the needs of others and vice versa.  

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[1] עי' שו"ת בנין ציון סי' קכב באריכות,ובס' מנחת קנאות למהר"ץ חיות סי' ז',כה"ח סע' יג סק"י"א

[2] שוע"ר סי' קכ"ד:י"א

[3] עי' שוע"ר סי' ס"א:י"א

[4] עי' שו"ת הלק"ט ח"ב סי' מח

[5]( שוע"ר סי' רו:ג (דלא כהט"ז והרמב"ם דמוסיף תיבת "ומורי"

[6] באה"ט סי' נ"ה ס"ק א', (ועי' פ"ת יו"ד סי' שעו סק"ו ובשע"ת סי' נ"ו סק"ג )

[7] עי' בשוע"ר סי' קצ"ב:ב' "דהשומע ברכה ב"פ חייב לענות ב"פ"

[8] עי' שו"ת ציץ אליעזר חי"א סי' ג' אות ד'