I'm confused by one thing in this story. The narrator keeps talking about being able to open a synagogue when his community attains its tenth member. But a minyan (quorum for prayer) requires ten adult males, and the Shushan community was far from achieving that requirement. Was he in fact referring to some British administrative rule permitting the establishment of a religious congregation rather than to Jewish law -- or did Kipling make a mistake here?
Fred Lerner
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