Gone to Shul
Is an Invisible Person Mitztaref to a Minyan
“What is this massive machine over here? It looks like a car wash for a person,” wondered Binyamin aloud as he went into his father’s study. With great curiosity, he started feeling the inside of the machine. “Whoa! I’m being sucked into the machine. Whew! I came out on the other side. I can’t wait to ask Tatty what this invention does. Let me run to shul. It’s almost shkiah and I didn’t daven Mincha yet. Tatty will be there and I’ll ask him.”
“We still need one more for a minyan,” announced the gabbai as Binyamin came in with another man.
“I am number ten,” Binyamin said after he made a mental count of the people in the room.
“Who said that?!” nine people said in fright.
“Binyamin, is that you I hear?” asked Rabbi Berger recognizing his son’s voice.
“Yes, it’s me. But what do you mean that you only hear me? Can’t you see me, too? I’m standing right next to you.”
By now, the other eight people were totally petrified.
“Don’t worry, chevrah. My dear, overly-curious son must have stepped into my top-secret invisibility generator. When we get home, I’ll take care of it. In the meantime, let’s start Ashrei,” said Rabbi Berger calming the minyan down.
Is an invisible person allowed to be the tenth man of a minyan?
Points to Ponder
A person - in a necessary situation - can be counted towards a minyan just by showing his face through the window of an adjacent room. (This is derived from Hilchos Zimun - Mishnah Brurah 55:57). As long as both parties can see each other, they are considered joined together. However, it seems that if the window is a one-way mirror, he can’t be counted because, although he can see them, they cannot see him (Mishnah Brurah 55:52; Shulchon Aruch Harav 55:16). If there were already ten men in one room, a person in the adjacent room is yotzai hearing Kaddish and Kedusha, but he is considered davening privately, even though they cannot see him (Shulchon Aruch 55:20; Mishnah Brurah 55:58, 61). From this it would appear that visibility is a necessary factor in order to be counted as part of the minyan.
On the other hand, a blind person can be join (mitztarif) to a minyan even though he cannot see his fellow congregants. His body is physically in the shul and only his handicap prevents him from seeing the other people at the minyan (Eishel Avraham Butchatch 2nd Edition; Mishnah Brurah 55:48); whereas, if a person would be in another room, the lack of visibility would render him disconnected from everyone else. Here too, Binyamin is physically in the room and he would be seen were he not invisible. It would seem that our case more closely parallels the halacha of the blind man than that of the person behind the one-way mirror.
Conclusion
Therefore, Rabbi Berger paskened that davening could proceed as usual with a bona fide minyan.
Upon their arrival at home, Rabbi Berger and son proceeded straight to his study.
“Binyamin, you sure are lucky that I also invented the antidote. All you have to do is simply step through the machine from the other side.”
“Whoa, it felt like I went through a car wash again,” exclaimed Binyamin.
“Good to see you again. I upgraded my potion of chameleon pigment into paint (see Excitement in Halacha: Invisible Man). Now a person won’t become visible again just from getting caught in the rain. The machine is designed to brush the invisibility paint in large quantities on humans. When you travel in reverse, the machine removes the invisibility paint off of the person.”