robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison) (07/02/84)
References: Here at Princeton we have, over the years, collected quite a lot of lore about how to carry on services when there is no Minyan, or a minyan that materializes late in the service. This Shabbath we experienced a situation that I cannot recall. I would appreciate comments. We had finally given up hope of a tenth appearing, and decided to read the Torah reading out loud from the Chumash, and then say Musaf and complete the service without a minyan. (I understand that this practice of reading from the Chumash is itself controversial. I have been told that it is stupid to have no Torah reading in any form, and equally stupid to read in any public way without a minyan.) Anyway, our tenth arrived when we had read about 6/7 of the portion, and we were not at all sure what we were entitled to do. After much indecision, we continued the service from Eyn Kamocha, and did a full public torah reading with blessings, etc. Comments (on the net or privately addressed) will be appreciated. - Toby Robison (not Robinson!) allegra!eosp1!robison decvax!ittvax!eosp1!robison
naiman@pegasus.UUCP (Ephrayim J. Naiman) (07/02/84)
Well I have no answer to your question but I'd like to share a similar story that occured to me. When I was 16 and going to yeshiva in Rochester, I was asked one Friday night to "lain" at a "shul" about 4 miles away, the next day. So, I stayed up all night and learned the "parsha". Little did I know that this "shul" had a lot of problems getting a "minyan". Well, I trudged the four miles in the snow and got there, only to find out that they indeed did not have a "minyan" that "Shabbos". We started davening anyway and when "Borchu" came around and there were only 9 people I began to despair. Being that I was a yeshive boy, everybody looked at me as though I was the Rabbi, and asked me what to do. I was no specialist in the laws of "davening" without a "minyan", the whole idea of someone asking me the law for anything threw me. To make a long story short, I told them we'll just have to go on without "Borchu". In the meantime I was trying to figure out what the "halacha" is if we still didn't have a "minyan" by "laining". I was still reciting the "Shemona Esrai" when the "Chazon" started repeating it, he evidently didn't know that you need a "minyan" for "Chazoras Hashatz" and "Kedusha". I was trying to figure out what to do when Lo and Behold !!! As the "Chazon" was saying "Mechayai Hamaisim" (He who returns the living from the dead) this guy with stringy, dirty hair, disgusting looking jeans, a guy I could barely see the features of his face through the dirt, walked in. The only thing I cared about though was that he had a "Kippah" on. After "shul", I asked around and nobody had ever seen him before. Spooky Huh ? -- ==> Ephrayim J. Naiman @ AT&T Information Systems Laboratories (201) 576-6259 Paths: [ihnp4, allegra, ...]!pegasus!naiman