[Seph. meen-yahn; Ashk., Eng. min-yuh
n] 
[Seph. meen-yah-neem; Ashk. min-yaw-nim] , English. min⋅yans. Hebrew. | 1. | the number of persons required by Jewish law to be present to conduct a communal religious service, traditionally a minimum of 10 Jewish males over 13 years of age. |
| 2. | such a group. |
| min·yan (mĭn'yən, mēn-yän') n. pl. min·ya·nim (mēn-yä-nēm', mĭn-yô'nĭm) or min·yans (mĭn'yənz) The minimum number of ten adult Jews or, among the Orthodox, Jewish men required for a communal religious service. [Hebrew minyān, number, minyan, from Aramaic minyānā, from mənā, to count; see mnw in Semitic roots.] |
minyanim
in Judaism, the minimum number of males (10) required to constitute a representative "community of Israel" for liturgical purposes. A Jewish boy of 13 may form part of the quorum after his Bar Mitzvah (religious adulthood). When a minyan is lacking for synagogue services, those who have gathered merely recite their prayers as private individuals. There is thus no public reading from the Torah (first five books of the Bible) and no Haftarah (selection from the prophetic books of the Bible). Such invocations as the Kaddish and qedusha are likewise omitted, for none of these is considered appropriate unless the "Jewish community" prays as one.
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