ועוד שאלתי אם מותר לעשות ב' סניפין מאותם שהגיעו לחינוך כגון אותם בני יו"ד או י"א שנים אחרי שהם בני חנוך דרבנן, או אם אסור לעשות כן אפי' כי אין שם מנין:
I also asked [in my dream] whether it was permitted [in counting the minyan] to include two additions of older children, i.e., ten- or eleven-year olds, since they are already rabinically required to be educated, or whether it was forbidden to do such a thing, even if there was no minyan without them.1See Tosafot on Berakhot 48a:2, who permits including one child in the minyan. Rabbeinu Tam is reported as holding this opinion but not allowing it in practice. He specifically rejects the idea of more than one minor. Abraham ben Natan quotes R. Zerachia Halevi who would permit two children to be added to the minyan (cited in Beit Yosef Orach Chaim 55). This is also reported in Kol Bo 11:144, where "even two or three children" are permitted to be counted in difficult situations. It's possible that this tradition reflects a manuscript variant (or vice versa), where the word סניף, 'addition', is written in the plural in some manuscripts of Berakhot 47b:15. We find the word סניפין, 'additions', in the following manuscripts: Firenze 7, Munich 95, Oxford 366, Paris 671.
2
והשיבו הקטנים עם הגדולים יוסף ה' עליכם:
They replied: "The young with the old, may God increase your numbers!" (Psalms 115:13)
ועוד שאלתי אם מותר לעשות ב' סניפין מאותם שהגיעו לחינוך כגון אותם בני יו"ד או י"א שנים אחרי שהם בני חנוך דרבנן, או אם אסור לעשות כן אפי' כי אין שם מנין:
I also asked [in my dream] whether it was permitted [in counting the minyan] to include two additions of older children, i.e., ten- or eleven-year olds, since they are already rabinically required to be educated, or whether it was forbidden to do such a thing, even if there was no minyan without them.1See Tosafot on Berakhot 48a:2, who permits including one child in the minyan. Rabbeinu Tam is reported as holding this opinion but not allowing it in practice. He specifically rejects the idea of more than one minor. Abraham ben Natan quotes R. Zerachia Halevi who would permit two children to be added to the minyan (cited in Beit Yosef Orach Chaim 55). This is also reported in Kol Bo 11:144, where "even two or three children" are permitted to be counted in difficult situations. It's possible that this tradition reflects a manuscript variant (or vice versa), where the word סניף, 'addition', is written in the plural in some manuscripts of Berakhot 47b:15. We find the word סניפין, 'additions', in the following manuscripts: Firenze 7, Munich 95, Oxford 366, Paris 671.
והשיבו הקטנים עם הגדולים יוסף ה' עליכם:
They replied: "The young with the old, may God increase your numbers!" (Psalms 115:13)