What is a congregant going to do? TB Berachot 48

Today’s daf TB Berachot 48 is worth reading in the English (follow this link: https://www.sefaria.org/Berakhot.48a?lang=bi). You will study the source of many different halachot which you may or may not be familiar with. Here are several examples. Anybody may join in in a zimmun if he or she has eaten any kind of food. However, only one who has eaten an olive size of bread (approximately 40 g) may lead the zimmun. There is a debate and how many people need to eat bread to qualify for a minyan and add God’s name in the invitation. Is the minimum six people or seven people? How old do you have to be to be eligible to join the zimmun? A minor who knows enough to Whom one recites a blessing is included in a zimmun.

The Gemara goes on to teach us who instituted the first four blessings of birkat hamazon, Grace after meals.

With regard to the origins of the four blessings of Grace after Meals, Rav Naḥman said:
Moses instituted for Israel the first blessing of: Who feeds all, when the manna descended for them and they needed to thank God.
Joshua instituted the blessing of the land when they entered Eretz Yisrael.
David and Solomon instituted the third blessing: Who builds Jerusalem, in the following manner:
David instituted “…on Israel Your people and on Jerusalem Your city…” as he conquered the city,
and Solomon instituted “…on the great and Holy Temple…” as he was the one who built the Temple.
They instituted the blessing: Who is good and does good, at Yavne in reference to the slain Jews of the city of Beitar at the culmination of the bar Kokheva rebellion. They were ultimately brought to burial after a period during which Hadrian refused to permit their burial. As Rav Mattana said: On the same day that the slain of Beitar were brought to burial, they instituted the blessing: Who is good and does good, at Yavne. Who is good, thanking God that the corpses did not decompose while awaiting burial, and does good, thanking God that they were ultimately brought to burial. (Sefaria.org translation)

But that’s not what I really want to share with you today. On daf 48a Tosefot describes what they call a minhag shtut, a dumb or ludicrous custom. Perhaps you have heard of it or even seen it in action. If you have nine people and a minor and the minor is holding a Humash, the minor completes the minyan for the purposes of prayer. It all begins on the preceding page TB Berachot 47b.  Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi makes an astounding statement. “Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: Although a minor lying in a cradle is not included in a zimmun, one may make him an adjunct to complete an assembly of ten people, enabling them to invoke God’s name in a zimmun.” (Sefaria.org translation)

As I wrote yesterday Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi’s opinion was rejected as halacha to be followed. Since in the Gemara the topic of a minyan for Grace after meals and for prayer services were intermixed and sometimes gathering a minyan for services was difficult, Tosefot writes on daf 48a that “there are those who incorporate a minor for prayer if he will be holding a Humash, a printed Torah, in his hand. Rebbenu Tam decrees that this is a minhag shtut for if an Ark with Torah scrolls isn’t a human being, how can a Humash be a human being?!” (My translation)

Rabbi Moses Isserlis, who adapted Joseph Karo’s Shulchan Aruch for the Ashkenazi diaspora begrudgingly admits that this custom still existed in his time, writing in Orech Chayim 55:4: “and even if he has a Humash in his hand he is not joined (to the 9 to make a minyan), although there those who follow this practice to be lenient in a time of need. (The Rosh and Mordechai and Hagahot Maimini chapter 9 of the Laws of Prayer” (Sefaria.org translation)

The Beair Hatav comments that “even in a time of need the minor doesn’t have to be holding the Humash. But davka only one minor and not two. The Lavush didn’t see this practice to join a minor even in a time of need. In our day we do have the custom joining a minor with a Humash in his hand (for the sake of a minyan). This only applies to hearing the barachu and the kaddish which are obligatory; however, the kaddish after aleinu is not said even in a time of need. The Bach writes those that the minor davka has to be holding a scroll like a Sefer Torah not like our printed Humashim (plural for Humash) to join the other 9 to make a minyan. Because of this, Zikeinu the Gaon of blessed memory wrote that the halachic practice is not to permit a minor to join to make a minyan. (My translation)

So there are those who permit a minor to make a minyan even if he isn’t holding a Humash. There those places that he must hold a Humash to be counted in a minyan. And there those who forbid this all the time and even call it a minhag shut. So what’s a congregant going to do? Simple. Ask your Rabbi.