Waiting for the Tenth Man

Excerpted with permission from "Small Miracles for the Jewish Heart" by Yitta Halberstam & Judith Leventhal.

In a small, makeshift synagogue not far from the Twin Towers, Orthodox Jewish professionals regularly meet early each morning for daily prayer services. Usually there is no problem rounding up a minyan (quorum of ten men required to pray) and the cramped quarters often overflow with worshipers. But on the morning of September 11th, there was an uncommon dearth of available men. Perhaps they had decided to remain that morning at their resident shuls for the important selichos services that precede the High Holidays. Or, perhaps, they were participating in the shloshim (one month anniversary) memorial services for the Jews who had been killed in the Grand Canyon helicopter crash. Two hundred men who worked in the World Trade Center, were, in fact, late to work that morning because of their participation in the shloshim service. But whatever the reason, the congregants were faced with a problem: only nine men were present, and time was marching on. These were serious men, professionals, and all had to be at their desks at the World Trade Center well before 9:00 a.m.

"What should we do?" they asked each other, impatiently tapping their wrist watches, as they paced the floors. "This situation hasn't happened in ages! Where is everybody?"

"I'm sure a tenth man will come along soon," someone else soothed. "We have to be patient."

The men waited, restless and tense. Some of them were already running late. Finally, when they had all but given up and were going to resort to individual prayer (instead of the preferred communal one), an old man whom nobody had ever seen before shuffled in the door.

"Did you daven (pray) yet?" he asked, looking at he group.

"No, sir!" one shouted jubilantly. "We've been waiting for you!"

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