Many Jewish ceremonies can only be performed in the presence of a Minyan — a quorum of ten adult Jewish males. The same is true of certain prayers, such as Kaddish, as well as the reading of the Torah. The Minyan represents a core cummunity. The source in the Torah that teaches us that ten men form a community is the story of the spies sent by the Jews in the wilderness to scout the land of Israel. The ten spies that slandered the land are referred to as a “community”. Therefore, the prerequisite for so many of our...

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