Question:
Why do we say a bracha on Hallel on Rosh Chodesh (and Chol Ha’Moed) if the Rambam holds that we shouldn’t say it? Why isn’t the Rambam’s shita enough to create a situation of safek bracha?
Should one have in mind to be yotzei with the baal tefilah and not say it himself?
Answer:
Hello,
The same question can really be asked regarding women saying birkas kriyas shema, the bracha on a lulav, shofar, and succah. There are lots of machlokes, in a lot of areas, but being that our minhag is to pasken not like the Rambam regarding this, for Ashkenazim, this is the minhag and therefore the halacha. It can be a safek until the poskim are machria (decide who to pasken like), but after they were machria, this remains the halacha for those who go according to those poskim.
There is no need to be smarter than all of the generations of poskim, and gedolim, that said and still say the bracha, like the minhag of the Ashkenazim, and were not yotza with the bracha of the chazan.
Best wishes
