The Meaning of Minyan - by Ted

Hello All! As Maya mentioned, we are both really excited to begin this blog. We don't necessarily know where it will end up, but the journey alone is enough for me. Since she already gave you the basics on the shul we visited, our reasons for choosing it, and a brief description, I can move right past that and talk about our discussion topic of that evening, the importance and meaning of a minyan.

As you'll soon find out, I'm a big history nerd, especially when it comes to Jewish history. Because of this, I figured we could start with a brief history lesson about minyanim before we move onto my personal thoughts. As minyan has to do with communal worship, it is not specifically mentioned in the Torah. Communal worship did not become popular until after the destruction of the Holy Temple in 70 CE, before which the main form of worship was sacrifice. The first mention of a minyan appears in the Talmud, in Megillah 23b, where it records a list of commandments that cannot be observed in the presence of less than ten men (while many of us now consider women able to partake in minyan, the authors of the Talmud appear to have felt differently). Some believe this number was chosen because of the dialogue between God and Abraham regarding the fate of Sodom (Gen 18:32), others turn to Numbers 17, and the story of the 12 spies sent into Canaan, and still others cite different stories and reasons. 


So we're sitting in Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, and for the first time ever, the possibility of not having a minyan became real. As Maya highlighted in her article, none of us had ever been in this situation before, and I wasn't sure what was going to happen. To be honest, I don't even know what COULD happen, I've never experienced a service without a minyan, and I'm not sure how it would differ from the one I'm regularly accustomed to. However, no more than a few minutes in, our minyan arrived and the service continued unaltered.

However, throughout the whole evening, I thought about the idea of not having a minyan. If you read Maya's article, you'd have noticed she felt that this lack of attendance made her feel uneasy, maybe even a little disconnected from the overall worship experience. For me, however, it did the exact opposite. While I sat there, being one of only a handful in attendance made me much more aware of my presence in the service. Often times, for me at least, I can get lost in the repetitiveness of a Shabbat evening service. While worship is important, it is not the main vehicle of my Jewish practice. As such, while I sometimes feel rejuvenated after Kabbalat Shabbat, sometimes it just feels like another Friday night. Being one of twenty made me not only feel like a real part of the community and congregation (impressive since I had never been inside the shul before or met any of the others there), but it made me very self-conscience, in a good way. I not only heard every word that was said, but I listened. I not only spoke all the prayers, but I felt them. To be honest, it was probably one of the most impactful services I have been to in a long time.


I think it is very easy to get lost in this fast paced world we live in, I do almost everyday. We've all got so many things going on at once, whether it is school, work, family lives, or something else, it's easy to get caught up in it all and forget what we are doing at that precise moment. This past Shabbat helped me put it all a bit more in perspective. "All his life as he looked away, to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was, what he was doing." I will leave the speaker's name out for now (though soon enough you'll figure me and my random quotes out), but the message is very important. While planning for the future is important (let's go HUC!), it is equally as important to live in the moment, experience things as they happen, and enjoy the present.