66 Jason Rosenberg

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now possible, they did wonder what it meant to be together,” and whether distance had an impact on that.

The Mishnah(Berakhot 7.5) teaches that, for the purposes of birkat hamazon, groups of people who are in a separate room may be considered one group, provided that some members of each group are visible to some of the other. And, the Talmud expands on that” saying that, even if the two groups are not visible to each other, at all, they may be considered one group(for purposes of the zimmun) if a single attendant is waiting on both of them. Mishnah (Rosh Hashanah 3.7) teaches that a person who hears a shofar, despite not being in the presence of that shofar(e.g. they were in the house next door to the synagogue) has fulfilled their obligation to hear it (provided they were attentive to the sound). So, it would seem that physical proximity is not an absolute requirement to constitute a prayer group, or to engage in ritual. However, the Talmud shows that these models are not applicable when it comes to statutory, communal prayer:

Mar Zutra says: This only applies to three, but as regards two, the law follows Mar Zutra. What is the reason? Since they wish to mention Gods name, less than ten would not be acceptable.”

Its one thing to overcome physical distance for relatively minor acts of ritual. However, when it comes to public prayer, a physical gathering of ten is required. So, once again we see that we have model of“lesser presence.” Being linked by sight, or by a waiter, is good enough for some purposes, but not for others. This is made clear ( Eruvin 92b) which shows that there are different standards in