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Three non-Orthodox Jewish movements hold a variant, differently accounted stance toward the minyan, the prayer quorum, in this atlas: Conservative, Reconstructionist and Reform Judaism. All three count adults of either sex toward the ten required for public prayer, a real change from a requirement traditionally read as counting men only. Read past the shared headline number and the three movements reach it by two different routes, with one of the three carrying it further still.

Two Accounts of How the Change Was Made

Conservative Judaism made the change through its own law committee, adopted congregation by congregation rather than imposed uniformly, an account that keeps halakhic process as the mechanism even while changing its outcome. Reconstructionist Judaism does not appeal to a law committee's ruling at all: it holds that the community rather than a fixed rule determines the form of its own worship, an account that relocates the authority itself rather than reinterpreting a rule under the old one.

A Third Movement Goes Further Still

Reform Judaism counts adults of either sex too, and takes a step neither of the other two takes: it does not treat the quorum as a condition without which the service cannot proceed at all. Where Conservative and Reconstructionist Judaism both still require ten, counted differently, Reform Judaism's own position loosens the requirement itself. Three movements sharing one headline change, reached by two different routes, with one of the three carrying it a full step past the other two.

Where To Read More

• MinyanCommunitiesThe quorum itself; one headline change reached three different ways
• Conservative JudaismJudaismThe change made through its own law committee, congregation by congregation
• Reconstructionist JudaismJudaismThe community rather than a fixed rule determines the form of its own worship
• Reform JudaismJudaismCounts adults of either sex and does not treat the quorum as a strict condition at all