In Judaism, a minyan ( minyān , lit. (noun) count, number; pl. minyānīm ) is the quorum of ten Jewish adults required for certain religious obligations. In all traditional orthodox practising Jewish religious movements, only men aged 13 years and older may constitute a minyan. The minimum of 10 Jews needed for a minyan has its origin (in part) in Abraham's prayer to God in Genesis 18:32. The minyan has additional roots in the judicial structure of ancient Israel as Moses first established it in Exodus 18:25 (i.e., the "rule of the 10s").Cyrus Adler's and Lewis N. Dembitz's "Minyan," Jewish Encyclopedia, https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10865-minyan Cyrus Adler's and Lewis Naphtali Dembitz's entry for "Minyan" in the Jewish Encyclopedia states: "The minimum of ten is evidently a survival in the Synagogue from the much older institution in which ten heads of families made up the smallest political subdivision. In Ex. xviii. Moses, on the advice of Jethro, appoints chiefs of tens, as well as chiefs of fifties, of hundreds, and of thousands. In like manner there were the decurio among the Romans and the tithingman among the early English."ibid., at https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10865-minyan
The most common activity requiring a minyan is public prayer. Accordingly, the term minyan in contemporary Judaism has taken on the secondary meaning of referring to a given prayer service, in general.
Sources The source for the requirement of minyan is recorded in the Talmud. The word minyan itself comes from the Hebrew root meaning to count or to number. The word is related to the Aramaic word mene, numbered, appearing in the writing on the wall in .
Babylonian Talmud
The Babylonian Talmud (Megillah 23b) derives the requirement of a minyan of ten Jewish men who are shomer Shabbat for Kiddush HashemSanhedrin 74b and Devarim she-Bikdusha, "matters of sanctity", by using the rule of gezerah shavah to link three verses based on shared word-choice:
The word "midst" in the verse:
And I shall be sanctified in the midst of the children of Israel ()
also appears in the verse:
Separate yourselves from the midst of the congregation ()
The term "congregation" is also used in another verse that describes the ten spies (of a total of twelve) who brought back a negative report of the Land of Israel:
How long shall I bear with this evil congregation which murmur against me? ()
From this combination, the Talmud concludes that "sanctification" should occur in the "midst" of a "congregation" of ten.
Jerusalem Talmud
The Jerusalem Talmud (Megillah 4:4) offers two sources for the requirement, also using a gezerah shavah:
The word "congregation" in the verse:
Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them: You shall be holy ()
is also used in another verse:
How long shall I bear with this evil congregation which murmur against me? ()
Since the term "congregation" in the later verse refers to the ten spies, so too in the former verse: "You shall be holy" refers to a "congregation" of ten.
The second source is based on the term "children of Israel" which appears in the following two verses:
And I shall be sanctified in the midst of the children of Israel ()
And the children of Israel came to buy among those that came ()
Just as the "children of Israel" in the later verse refers to the ten sons of Jacob who descended to Egypt to obtain food during the famine, so too the former verse refers to sanctification among the "children of Israel" in the presence of ten.
Rituals requiring a minyan Some rituals require a minyan; the presence of a rabbi (a teacher, not a priest) is not essential—it is said that "nine rabbis do not constitute a minyan, but ten cobblers can".
The following instances which require a minyan are listed in the Mishnah in Megillah (4:3):
Public worship, which consists of the additional readings of Kaddish, Barechu, Kedusha and the Repetition of the Amidah. The minor tractate Soferim contains a passage (10:7) often interpreted as asserting that in Land of Israel at that time seven men were allowed to hold public services, or that the repeating of "Kaddish" and "Barechu" at the synagogue for the benefit of late comers, and declares that in Israel such a repetition is permitted only when seven (according to others, when six) men are present who have not yet heard these responsive readings. The priestly blessing. Reading from the Torah and Prophets with the associated benedictions. Seven benedictions recited at a wedding, or at any meal of the bridegroom and bride within a week from the wedding. However, the last blessing (asher barah) may be recited in the presence of three men.Shulchan Aruch Even Ha-ezer 62:4. Using the formulation "Let us bless our God, from whose wealth we have eaten," in preparing for Grace after meals. Ancient funeral ceremonies, no longer in use, which incorporated arranging the standing and sitting, reciting the benedictions of the mourners and the consolation of the mourners.
Other instances which require the presence of a minyan include:
Recitation of the Thirteen Attributes of MercyShulchan Aruch OC 565:5 Recitation of Birkat ha-Gomel.Shulchan Aruch OC 219:3
While the required quorum for most activities requiring a quorum is usually ten, it is not always so. For example, the Passover sacrifice or Korban Pesach (from the days of the Temple in Jerusalem) must be offered before a quorum of 30. (It must be performed in front of kahal adat yisrael, the assembly of the congregation of Israel. Ten are needed for the assembly, ten for the congregation, and ten for Israel.) According to some Talmudic authorities, women counted in the quorum of 30 for offering the Korban Pesach (e.g. Rav, Rav Kahana, Pesachim 79b).
Prayer with a minyan
It was the firm belief of the sages that wherever ten Israelites are assembled, either for worship or for the study of the Law, the Divine Presence dwells among them. In rabbinical literature, those who meet for study or prayer in smaller groups, even one who meditates or prays alone, are to be praised. However, the stress is put upon the merits and sacredness of the minyan of ten. The codifiers, such as Maimonides,Maimonides writes that "The prayer of the community is always heard; and even if there were sinners among them, the Holy One, blessed be He, never rejects the prayer of the multitude. Hence a person must join himself with the community, and should not pray by himself so long as he is able to pray with the community." Mishneh Torah Hilkhot Tefillah 8:1 his annotators, and the author of the Shulkhan Arukh, have unitedly given strength to this sentiment, and have thus, for more than a thousand years, made the daily attendance at public worship, morning and evening, to be conducted with a quorum of ten.
There is a disagreement between the medieval commentators on whether prayer with a minyan is preferable or obligatory. Rashi is of the view that an individual is obligated to pray with a minyan, while Nahmanides holds that only if ten adult males are present are they obliged to recite their prayer together, but an individual is not required to seek out a minyan.
Rashi and the TosafotRashi and Tosafot to Talmud Bavli Pesachim 46a are both of the opinion that one is required to travel the distance of 4 mil to pray with a minyan (contemporary authorities differ as to whether this is a distance or a time that it would have taken to travel this distance and with modern technology one would need to travel a lot further). The Mishnah Berurah writes that one who is sitting at home must travel up to one mil.Savannah at the Hashkafah.com forums quoting https://www.dafdigest.org/pesachim/Pesachim%20046.pdf
Eligibility
There is much discussion in rabbinic literature on the matter of who is eligible to be counted in a minyan. Some discussions revolve around whether or not a minyan should consist of individuals who are obligated in performance of that particular precept. Some authorities deduce who may constitute a minyan by drawing on the verses which are brought as the basis for minyan and their implication. For example, the verse, "How long shall I bear with this evil congregation which murmur against me?" is referring to the ten spies, a congregation comprising Jewish adult males. It is understood from this that a minyan must likewise comprise ten Jewish adult males. Other classical sources base their rulings on discussions brought in the Talmud. Contemporary rabbinical authorities deal with a plethora of questions relating to qualification for minyan.
Minors Before a boy turns thirteen, he is considered a minor in Jewish law and is not obligated in the performance of religious precepts. However, if a child is over six years of age and has adequate comprehension of the significance of the precepts, his status may change. His inclusion in minyan is thus subject of Talmudic dispute. Based on the Talmudic passage in Berachot, Rabbeinu Tam states that a minor can act as the tenth personTosafot Berachot 47b and according to the Baal Ha-Maor, up to four minors would be permitted. Rosh explains that those who permit the inclusion of a minor maintain that it is the Divine Presence which actually constitutes the tenth member, thereby validating the minyan — this may explain why some of these authorities require that the minor represent this fact by holding a chumash. However the majority of poskim follow the conclusion of the Ri who holds that a minor can never be counted in a minyan under any circumstances. This is the stance taken by the Shulchan Aruch, who, although acknowledging some authorities do permit the inclusion of an astute six-year-old, writes that consensus rejects this view and only males over the age of thirteen may constitute a minyan.Shulchan Aruch OC 55 However, in extraordinary circumstances some are lenient and permit a minor over six years old holding a chumash or Sefer Torah to complete a minyan. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein says that we can rely on this because most of the laws of Minyan are Rabbinical in nature (except for the laws of Kiddush Hashem),See Igrot Moshe OC 2:18. so one can conclude that when dealing with a Biblical law of Minyan (such as Sanctifying God's name in public) one would not be able to count a child.
Women Although the issue of whether women are permitted to make up a minyan has been noted in early works, the matter has only come to the fore in the past few decades, a reaction to an enhanced role of women in modern society and to the demand for their inclusion in all areas of religious life.
The Talmud itself does not directly address the question of whether women may count as part of a minyan for devarim shebkdusha. Since the Talmud uses the same gezerah shavah for Kiddush Hashem as it uses for devarim shebkdusha, one may expect the laws for those two cases to be the same. Many authorities are of the opinion that women are included in the minyan for Kiddush Hashem and Hillul Hashem. However, traditional codifiers generally do not include women in the minyan for devarim shebkdusha.