5785/2025
Modern authorities have vigorously debated whether a sound heard through a microphone, hearing aid (which functions much like a microphone), or telephone shares the status of the original sound. This issue impacts the fulfillment of numerous mitzvot, such as listening to Havdalah, shofar blowing, Torah and Megillah readings, through electronic media.
How Does a Microphone Work?
Before addressing the halachic aspects of electronic devices, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (Teshuvot Minchat Shlomo 1:9) describes the workings of a microphone in great detail. It receives sound waves (the original voice or sound) and converts them into electronic signals. An amplifier/speaker system then reconverts the electronic signals into an amplified replica of the original sound. A similar operation takes place within hearing aids and telephones. Of course, radios and televisions translate radio waves instead of electrical signals.
Can One Fulfill a Mitzvah with Such a Mechanism?
Several early twentieth-century authorities believed one could fulfill the mitzvot of shofar and Megillah even through a microphone system (see Encyclopedia Talmudit 18:749-753). However, they lacked access to precise scientific information, so they formulated their opinion based on common-sense perception without conclusively knowing whether a microphone broadcasts a human voice or first transforms it into electronic signals.
Later, prominent authorities who understood microphones more accurately nonetheless considered permitting their use for mitzvot, which entail listening. The Chazon Ish (oral communication to Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, cited in Teshuvot Minchat Shlomo 1:9) suggests that perhaps “since the voice that is heard via microphone was created [at first] by the [human] speaker and the voice is heard immediately, as it would be heard in regular conversation, it is also defined as ‘actually hearing’ the shofar blower or the [voice of the human] speaker.”
Rav Moshe Feinstein (Teshuvot Igrot Moshe, O.C. 2:108), Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank (cited in Teshuvot Minchat Yitzchak 2:113 and Teshuvot Tzitz Eliezer 8:11), and Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik (as reported by Rav Hershel Schachter, in his Piskei Corona p. 107) suggest a similar line of reasoning. Rav Moshe indicates that one never hears a sound directly from its source; the vibration created when a person speaks then passes through the air to the listener’s ear. The vibrating air next to the listener is not the same as that which vibrates near the speaker’s vocal cords. Thus, Rav Moshe suggests that perhaps any sound that reaches the listener directly from the original sound shares the same halachic status as the speaker’s voice. Nevertheless, Rav Moshe discourages using a microphone even for rabbinic mitzvot, such as reading the Megillah. Rav Shlomo Zalman, however, attacks any possibility of claiming that one can equate an electronically reproduced sound with a person’s original voice:
Does not the Mishnah (Rosh Hashanah 27b) state that if one blows a shofar into a pit and hears only an echo, he has not fulfilled the mitzvah of shofar? Why is hearing something through a microphone different from hearing an echo? They are both replications of the original sound!
Rav Shlomo Zalman concludes that the Chazon Ish’s possible leniency is highly questionable, “and I do not comprehend it.”
The argument that a Mitzvah Cannot be Fulfilled
Most poskim believe one does not fulfill any mitzvot by hearing a sound through a microphone. In particular, most mid- and late-twentieth-century authorities, who benefited from a greater understanding than their predecessors of how microphones operate, reject the use of microphones for the performance of mitzvot, with the possible exception of Torah reading. They argue that one hears an electronically reproduced sound over these devices. In contrast, the Halachah requires hearing the actual sound of a shofar or the voice of the one reciting Havdalah. They note that this reproduction is substantially inferior to hearing an echo since it lacks any trace of the original sound, whereas echoes come from the original sound waves. According to Rav Shlomo Zalman, blowing the shofar over a sound system is analogous to pressing a button on a computer that produces the sound of a shofar.
Rav Shlomo Zalman therefore writes that he is pained to rule that one cannot fulfill the mitzvot of shofar and Megillah through a hearing aid. Accordingly, hearing-disabled individuals should remove their hearing aids during shofar blowing and Megillah reading. If they cannot hear the shofar or Megillah without their hearing aids, they must not recite the blessings for these mitzvot.
Hearing the shofar and Megillah with a hearing aid still has some value because of the opinion of the Chazon Ish and Rav Moshe that one might fulfill these mitzvot even with a sound system. Similarly, Rav Waldenberg (Teshuvot Tzitz Eliezer 8:11) writes that if a Rav decides to broadcast the Megillah reading throughout a hospital to enable patients to hear it, he should not be denigrated, for he follows the reasoning of the Chazon Ish and Rav Moshe in a case of very great need (as these patients otherwise would not hear the Megillah at all). Rav Moshe (Igrot Moshe, O.C. 4:91) rules that one may recite Havdalah over the telephone on behalf of a listener with no other way to hear it (such as a patient in a distant hospital). In fact, Rav Menachem Genack told me that Rav Moshe recited Havdalah over the phone for his sister Rebbetzin Small of Chicago after her husband died.
Rav Hershel Schachter’s Ruling
Under normal circumstances, most contemporary authorities (cited earlier) accept Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach’s contention that electronically reproduced sounds do not suffice for mitzvot requiring a specific natural sound. Therefore, as a general rule, one should not use a microphone for any mitzvot that entail hearing an actual sound (with the possible exception of Torah reading, according to some authorities). However, Rav Hershel Schachter (op. cit.) rules that in an unusually pressing situation (sha’at hadechak, one may rely on the poskim who believe that performing mitzvot through electronically reproduced sound is preferable to not performing them at all.
Conclusion – Implementing Rav Schachter’s Ruling
During Purim 5781/2021, I made an extraordinary effort to read Megillah to congregants and students outside their homes to avoid relying on the lenient view. In total, I read the Megillah that year more than thirty times! I did not rely on the lenient ruling since it was not a sha’at hadechak, as I could visit people outside their homes (and the weather was not oppressive).
On the other hand, my family recites Havdalah on the telephone for my elderly and widowed aunts from 1998 until 2013 and my mother-in-law since 2019 (after my father-in-law passed away) since the situation qualifies as a sha’at hadechak. These relatives were uncomfortable making Havdalah (as they rightfully view it as a man’s role), and there are numerous reports of elderly women burning themselves from handling the Havdalah fire. Finally, Havdalah recital with loving family helps mitigate the loneliness experienced by these elderly widows.