Are there any sources for counting Druze men as part of a Jewish minyan?

One possible cause of confusion:

In Israel, Muslim men do not have compulsory military service (and relatively few volunteer), but Jewish and Druze men do; most Druze men in Israel serve in the military. A group of Jews forming a minyan who were not aware of this might well count any man in an IDF uniform.

(I have personally seen someone make this assumption; I assume it is a more likely error among visitors to Israel.)

This does not touch on the question of "do Druze men count to a halachic minyan" but does answer the underlying question of "why would someone think Druze can be counted" and the question asked in a comment of "is this merely hypothetical."

posted over 3 years ago

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3y ago

Aliza‭

180 reputation 4 9 11 7

Basically it would appear that the Druze are an offshoot of Islam. The only reason that someone would accept a Druze as part of a minyan would be if they claimed to be Jewish. It appears from the description of Druze that they do not claim to be Jewish. If he had been accepted in a minyan, it would only be because the people there thought he was Jewish.

The description states that they do not accept converts at all.

Wikipedia says

The Druze (/druːz/;[18] Arabic: درزي‎ darzī or durzī, plural دروز durūz; Hebrew: דְּרוּזִי‎ drūzī plural דְּרוּזִים‎, druzim) are an Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group[19] originating in Western Asia who self-identify as The People of Monotheism (Al-Muwaḥḥidūn).[20] Jethro of Midian is considered an ancestor of the Druze, who revere him as their spiritual founder and chief prophet.[21][22][23][24][25] It is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion based on the teachings of Hamza ibn Ali ibn Ahmad and the sixth Fatimid caliph, al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, and Ancient Greek philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, and Zeno of Citium.[26][27]

The Epistles of Wisdom is the foundational text of the Druze faith.[28] The Druze faith incorporates elements of Isma'ilism, a branch of Shia Islam,[29] Gnosticism,[30][31] Christianity,[30][31] Zoroastrianism,[32][33] Buddhism,[34][35] Hinduism,[36][37] Neoplatonism,[30][31] Pythagoreanism,[36][37] and other philosophies and beliefs, creating a distinct and secretive theology based on an esoteric interpretation of scripture, which emphasises the role of the mind and truthfulness.[20][37] Druze believe in theophany and reincarnation or the transmigration of the soul.[38] Druze believe that at the end of the cycle of rebirth, which is achieved through successive reincarnations, the soul is united with the Cosmic Mind (al-ʻaql al-kullī).[39]

Even though the faith originally developed out of Isma'ilism, Druze do not identify as Muslims.[40][41][42] Druze are theologically distinct from Muslims due to their eclectic system of doctrines,[43][42] such as the belief in theophany and reincarnation, and they do not accept nor follow the five pillars of Islam.[42]

The Druze community played a critically important role in shaping the history of the Levant, where it continues to play a significant political role. As a religious minority in every country in which they are found, they have frequently experienced persecution by different Muslim regimes.[44] Most recently, Druze were targeted by Islamic extremists.[45][46] The Druze faith is one of the major religious groups in the Levant, with between 800,000 and a million adherents. They are found primarily in Syria, Lebanon and Israel, with small communities in Jordan. The oldest and most densely-populated Druze communities exist in Mount Lebanon and in the south of Syria around Jabal al-Druze (literally the "Mountain of the Druzes").[47] The Druze's social customs differ markedly from those of Muslims and today's more urbanized Christians. They are known to form close-knit, cohesive communities which do not fully allow non Druzes in, though they themselves integrate fully in their adopted homelands.

posted over 3 years ago

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sabbahillel‭

339 reputation 0 14 29 15