עשרה וכולהו ישראל ישראל אף כאן עשרה וכולהו מה להלן
Just like there, there were ten and they were all Jewish so too here there must be ten and they must be Jewish
Rav Moshe Feinstein was asked whether people who do not observe Shabbos could be included in a minyan if one cannot find a minyan of Shabbos observers. Initially he suggests that the matter may be subject to a dispute but by the end of his response he writes that one may include people who do not observe Shabbos in a minyan. He cites our Gemara as proof to this conclusion.
The Gemara discusses what qualifies as “public” for matters of sanctification of HaShem’s name. R’ Yaakov in the name of R’ Yochanan states that there must be at least ten people present for something to be considered public and they must all be Jewish. The requirement that all ten people must be Jewish is derived from the verse בתוך בני ישראל ונקדשתי – And I will be sanctified in the midst of the Bnai Yisroel. The Gemara then makes a gezairah shava using the word תוך to connect this verse with a verse discussing the spies. The gezairah shava teaches that just as the spies numbered ten and were Jewish, so too, in order to sanctify HaShem’s name we require ten people who are Jewish.
The fact that we derive the requirement for a minyan from the spies is significant for another reason. The spies were considered apostates – כופרים – who are worse than Shabbos desecrators and nevertheless we use them as the model that teaches that the sanctification of HaShem’s name requires the presence of ten Jews.
Teshuvas Or L’tzion adopts a more stringent position on this matter. He writes that people who intentionally and knowingly desecrate Shabbos are categorized as gentiles and can not be counted towards any matter of sanctity. This is also the position cited by Mishnah Berurah. The reason why the spies do not serve as an example that any Jew could be included in a minyan is that the Gemara never states explicitly that they were apostates and thus for the purpose of this teaching we do not consider them to be wicked and thus the precedent to which Rav Feinstein refers is invalid.
