There is a point in the Kaddish prayer where I am used to replying “amen,” but I’ve noticed that some other congregations instead reply “brich Hu.” Can you shed some light on this difference?

Reply

Throughout Kaddish, the congregation responds with “amen” at various points. When the chazan recites the phrase veyit'halal shmei dekudsha brich hu, “and praised be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He,” at those last two words—brich hu—there are varying customs as to how the congregation responds.

The phrase shmei dekudsha brich hu can actually be read two different ways, and the way you read it determines everything.1

Reading #1: Brich Hu Concludes the Phrase

DeKudsha Brich Hu is read as a single noun phrase — the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew HaKadosh Baruch Hu, “the Holy One, blessed be He.” The chazzan recites the entire statement, “May the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, be glorified,” and only once he finishes does the congregation respond. What follows, le'eila min kol birchata, “Beyond all the blessings,” then begins an entirely new and separate idea.

With this reading, the Kaddish breaks into two distinct statements:

  1. “... lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He.”
  2. “Blessed be He beyond all blessings …” (beginning with le'eila)

To demarcate the separate ideas, the congregation responds with “amen” after the conclusion of brich hu.

Who follows this custom? Sephardic and Yemenite communities, those who follow Nusach Sepharad (including Chabad),2 as well as a few Ashkenazic communities.

Reading #2: Brich Hu Opens the Next Phrase

The chazan’s first statement ends at dekudsha, “May the name of the Holy One be glorified.” What follows — Brich Hu le'eila min kol birchata, “Blessed is He beyond all blessing” — is a separate declaration that runs continuously without interruption. With this reading, there is no natural pause after brich hu at all; the entire phrase brich hu le'eila min kol birchata flows as one unbroken unit.

Accordingly, no interruption or response is made after the chazan says the words brich hu.

The congregation answering with the words brich hu is a relatively newer custom, as we will explain.

Who follows this custom? Some Ashkenazic communities.

Early Sources: Amen vs No Response

In early sources, including the earliest siddurim, such as the siddur of Rav Amram Gaon, as well as later in the prayers as outlined by Maimonides, the standard congregational response for these words is “amen.” And while the Talmud discusses the power of answering “Amen, yehei shmei rabba,” it makes no mention of any separate congregational response at brich hu.

Rabbi Yosef Caro, in the Code of Jewish Law, ruled similarly.3

This follows the Arizal's view that there are five “amens” strategically placed within the Kaddish to properly separate the different spiritual components of the prayer.4 Interestingly, in his work Maggid Meisharim (where he records Kabbalistic teachings he learned from an angel), Rabbi Yosef Caro also writes that one should recite five amens, including amen after brich hu.5

Rabbi Moses Isserlis, known as the Rama, however, writes in his gloss on the Code of Jewish Law, that one should not interrupt at all between brich hu and the next words leila min kol, since in his view it is one long continuation.6

The Start of the Custom of Brich Hu

This brings us to the custom of responding with the words brich hu.

Approximately four hundred years ago, a different custom began appearing in some Ashkenazic communities.

Rabbi David HaLevi Segal, known as the Taz (1586-1667), describes the emerging custom of his time: people were responding at this point in Kaddish with the words brich hu le'eila — “blessed is He above” (perhaps done to hint to the chazan not to pause in between).7

He very strongly objected to this custom. The phrase brich hu le'eila taken in isolation implies that G‑d is blessed Above, but not below. As if His greatness were somehow limited to the Heavenly realm. This is obviously not the intent, but the truncated phrase creates that deeply unfortunate impression, which, in the Taz's words, borders on blasphemy.

If you are going to respond at this point, he writes, you must continue through to min kol birchata — “beyond all blessing.” Only the full phrase brich hu le'eila min kol birchata makes clear that G‑d's greatness transcends all categories entirely, Above and below alike. And indeed, some communities respond this way.

Slightly later, Rabbi Eliyahu Spira, known as the Elya Rabah (1660–1712), writes that he found written in the margins of a Shulchan Aruch the custom of responding with just the words brich hu. This sidesteps the Taz's concern entirely, since those two words alone carry no misleading implication.8 It would seem that from here emerged the common custom that many, if not most Ashkenazic communities have adopted: answering with just the two words, brich hu.

Interrupting Prayers to Answer: Brich Hu vs Amen

There is another practical consequence of this history of amen vs brich hu.

Since replying with brich hu is a later development—not part of the original formulation nor found in the Talmud, but a custom that emerged organically centuries later—many halachic authorities give it the same status as Baruch Hu u'varuch shemo, the response we instinctively call out when hearing G‑d's name at the beginning of a blessing. And just as Baruch Hu u'varuch shemo may not be said during Pesukei D'Zimra or Birchat Kriat Shema — sections of prayer where even well-intentioned interruptions are restricted — the same applies to brich hu.

So, if your custom is to say “amen,” you may say it during that point of prayer. But if your custom is to say brich hu, and you hear Kaddish during Pesukei D'Zimra, you only answer Yehei shmei rabba and the amen at the end, but you leave out brich hu.9