Q&A from the Bais HaVaad Halacha Hotline

Volume Discount?

June 19, 2025

Q I sit near a loud air conditioner in shul and can’t hear myself davening. Is that a problem?

A The Mishnah (Brachos 15a) records a machlokess whether one who doesn’t hear himself saying Krias Shma fulfills the mitzvah. The halacha is that he does (Shulchan Aruch O.C. 62:3), and this ruling applies to all parts of davening (Biur Halacha ibid.). Even if one produces no sound, he is yotzei as long as the words are clearly articulated by his lips (Halichos Shlomo 7:10).

This is only bedieved, though, and the proper way to daven and recite brachos is to vocalize the words and hear them (O.C. ibid. and 206:3). According to some poskim, this lechat’chilah requirement is mideOreisa, at least for Krias Shma (Mishnah Brurah 62:4).

In your case, where your voice is inherently audible but another sound overpowers it, there is some discussion among the later poskim, including the Kaf Hachaim (ibid. citing Chesed La’alafim), who expresses doubt. The question is whether the requirement of audibility is about volume—regardless of whether or not the speaker can actually hear it—or that the speaker actually hear his own voice.

Interestingly, some suggest an allusion to the answer in the Torah’s account of makas tzfardeia (Shmos 8:6), where it says that Moshe “cried out” to Hashem in tfilah, while in the other makos it says only that he davened. The Sifsei Chachamim explains that because the croaking of the frogs drowned out his voice, Moshe had to daven louder during that makah.

In practice, R’ Shlomo Zalman Auerbach is quoted as ruling that one should daven at a normal volume and ignore the noise (Halichos Shlomo 22 fn. 16). But for Krias Shma it is recommended to be stringent and speak loud enough to actually hear (see Netziv cited in Mishnah Acharonah on Mishnah Brurah ibid.). Of course, if it is easy to change your seat, doing so would be best.