If there are exactly 10 people in a minyan and one or more are forbidden from answering kaddish at that moment, is kaddish allowed to be recited? Examples of such a situation may include if someone is putting on tefillin, davening shmoneh esrei, needs to relieve himself etc.
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Kaadish only requires 10 men to be present, not that they answer. So even if they can't answer, I don't see why they wouldn't count. – rosenjcb Oct 30 '14 at 13:35
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@rosenjcb do they count if they are asleep? – Oct 30 '14 at 14:01
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Highly related: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/13540/need-minyan-to-answer-kaddish – Yishai Oct 30 '14 at 14:16
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@user6641 Maybe, I'm not exactly sure... Oh Danny has an actual source! – rosenjcb Oct 30 '14 at 19:08
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The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch in סימן טו - דיני קדיש וברכו וצרוף עשרה says that as long as there are at least 6 people actually answering, you may say Kaddish, as long as there are 10 adult males above Bar Mitzva awake in the room - even if 1, 2, 3 or 4 of them are forbidden from answering kaddish at that moment.
סעיף ז': אִם אֵין ט' שׁוֹמְעִין לְהַשְּׁלִיחַ צִבּוּר, לֹא יֹאמַר כְּלָל קַדִּישׁ, כִּי כָּל דָּבָר שֶׁבִּקְדֻשָּׁה אֵין אוֹמְרִים בְּפָחוֹת מֵעֲשָׂרָה דְּהַיְנוּ אֶחָד אוֹמֵר וְתִשְׁעָה שׁוֹמְעִים, וּמִכָּל מָקוֹם, אִם אֶחָד מֵהָעֲשָׂרָה מִתְפַּלֵּל תְּפִלַּת שְׁמוֹנֶה עֶשְׂרֵה, אַף עַל פִּי שֶׁאֵינוֹ יָכוֹל לַעֲנֹת עִמָּהֶם מִצְטָרֵף וְהוּא הַדִּין לְב' וְג' וְד', כָּל שֶׁנִּשְׁאַר הָרֹב שֶׁעוֹנִין, אֵין הַמִּעוּט מְעַכֶּבֶת, אֲבָל אִם אֶחָד מֵהֶן יָשֵׁן, צְרִיכִין לְהָקִיצוֹ, כִּי הַיָּשֵׁן אֵינוֹ מִצְטָרֵף לַעֲשָׂרָה. (נ"ו)
Danny Schoemann
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I remember this being put to practice as well. One time a minyan showed up late and the chazan waited for at least 5 other people to finish shemone esrei before continuing on (my memory is a bit fuzzy though). – rosenjcb Oct 30 '14 at 19:10