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Laws Related to Berachot
These are some Berachot which fall in the middle between the two categories mentioned last week– that is – they aren’t clearly obligatory or not obligatory, and it is questionable if they can count as part of the 100 Berachot or not:
Amen in response to the blessing on an Aliya to the Torah, or on the Berachot of the Haftarah: On the one hand, the listener is not personally obligated to recite these Berachot, since he is not performing the Mitzvah. On the other hand, the Torah reading and Haftarah are communal obligations. Some Rishonim count these Berachot, and Mishna Berura (46:14) rules that if one has no other choice, these may be included in the one hundred Berachot.
Amen in response to Hazarat HaShatz(theHazan’s repetition of Amidah): There are two ways to view these Berachot; the listener has already recited Shemone Esre on his own, but nonetheless, Hazarat HaShatz is a communal obligation. For these reasons, the status is uncertain and the Mishna Berura (46:14) writes that it is questionable if answering amen to Hazarat HaShatz counts towards the one hundred Berachot obligation.