[Avodah] House minyanim

[Akiva Miller]

On Areivim, the issue was raised that the shuls in Bergen County NJ are now
closed, and the question of "house minyanim" was raised too. I have a
question about house minyanim that I'd like to discuss.

My understanding of Mechaber 55:13 and MB 55:48 is that a proper house
minyan has the Shliach Tzibur and nine other men in one single room. Once
that minyan exists, additional people can be in adjoining rooms, provided
that they can see and hear.

I've often been at house minyanim where fewer people are in the room with
the Shliach Tzibur, and the rest are in an adjoining room. The doorway
between them is so wide that people don't give it a second thought. It
seems to me that even though there is no actual door separating these two
rooms, the fact that there's a mezuzah between them might define them as
distinct rooms for the halacha of establishing a minyan.

I hope I have explained the situation clearly enough. The MB does not seem
to specify the width of the doorway in question, nor did I see any
distinction between a "doorway" and an "open door". I suppose someone could
argue that the problem exists only for standard-width doors which happen to
be open at the moment, and that there's no problem for a living room and
dining room that happen to have a mezuzah between them. Has anyone see any
poskim write about this?

Akiva Miller
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