Megilla 23 Respect for the Congregation/When is a Minyan Required?

Amud (a) reflects more of our rabbis' conversations about reading Torah.  On different occasions, there are different numbers of readers for different numbers of days.  We are offered more prooftexts so that we can understand the origins of our rabbis' assertions.  Of note is the recommendation from Tosefta (Megilla 3:11) when there are seven readers: all people can read Torah on those days, including women and minors. However, the Sages said that a woman should not read the Torah out of respect for the congregation.  

There is no note to help us understand the rabbis' thinking.  Thus I would suggest that "respect for the congregation" means that men would not want women, who are of significantly lower status, to be 'disrespectful' of male authority by taking on roles of religious leadership.  Thus it is not a religious imperative but a social rule that teaches that women do not read Torah.

Amud (b) opens with a new Mishna.  It teaches that we require a minyan, ten men (although it is unclear whether this is truly meaning ten men or ten people) to do the following things:

• recite the blessing before the Shema (porsin)
• pass in front of the ark (to repeat the Amida)
• lift their hands in the Priestly Blessing
• read Torah in public
• conclude with a haftara/reading from Prophets
• standing and sitting (for eulogies)
• recite the mourners' prayer or comfort mourners (in two lines after the funeral)
• recite the bridegrooms' blessing
• conduct a zimmun/invite people to Birkat HaMazon, saying G-d's name
• redeem consecrated land by less than nine men and one priest
• assess the value of a person who  pledges his/her value to the Temple by less than 9 men and one priest

The rabbis look to a number of sources to better understand the requirement of ten men.  Gezerah Shavahs, verbal analogies, where we learn about ten men being separated from the others (Numbers 16:21) and the evil congregation of ten spies (Numbers 14:27) offer two sources.  

Regarding standing and sitting, the mourners' blessing and the bridegrooms' blessing, blessings of Birkat HaMazon - these are all taken as self-explanatory.  It seems that it is understood that ten men are required to create a community capable of communal prayer.  Perhaps we will learn more about the rabbis' reasoning.  

The rabbis note that it is difficult to value a person who has consecrated oneself.  Rabbi Abbahu offers a helpful tip: just as slaves are valued, we should value these people.  And slaves are to be inherited as possessions, just like one's land.  Thus slaves - and those who consecrate themselves to the Temple - should be evaluated similarly to how land is evaluated.

Sometimes our learning feels incredibly modern; simple to apply to modern questions.  Today is not one of those days.  Every part of today's daf feels antiquated - which it is!  What is amazing is that it is ever simple to connect the daily daf with our lives, 2000 years later.