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Concept
Minyan
Summary
In Judaism, a minyan (מניין \ מִנְיָן mīnyān minˈjan, lit. (noun) count, number; pl. mīnyānīm minjaˈnim) is the quorum of ten Jewish adults required for certain religious obligations. In more traditional streams of Judaism, only men 13 and older may constitute a minyan; in more liberal (non-Orthodox) streams women are also counted.
The minimum of 10 Jews needed for a meeting has its origin in Abraham's prayer to God in Genesis 18:20. In that prayer, Abraham asks the Almighty not to destroy Sodom if there are 50 believers and keeps asking Him until 10. God then promises Abraham that He will not destroy Sodom if there are 10 believers in Sodom.
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 prayer service.
The source for the requirement of minyan is recorded in the Talmud. The word minyan itself comes from the Hebrew root maneh 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 shomer Shabbat for Kiddush Hashem and Devarim she-Bikdusha, "matters of sanctity", by combining three scriptural verses using the rule of gezerah shavah:
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.
Official source
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