Q. Regarding the questions regarding fences separating backyard properties to be able to have a proper minyan for Chazaras Hashatz. I wonder about the backyards that have decks as many do. These decks are usually more than ten tefachim high and are also surrounded with their own protective railings that are also higher. Can part of the minyan be standing on the deck? Are these decks any different than an elevated bimah in a shul that also has similar railing? Why would small chain-link fences between properties be any different?
A. Although. as mentioned on question above, Mishna Berura (55: 52) rules in principle that one who davens in the window of an adjoining building, if his face is visible, is counted as part of the minyan, Horav Aharon Miller Shlit’a quoted that Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit’a maintains that it does divide the minyan if it is ten tefachim high (approximately 1.m), for the purpose of reciting Chazaras Ha’shatz and Kerias Hatorah, as mentioned above. It is not the same as the ten tefachim high railings of an elevated bimah in a shul, where the people standing there are counted as part of the minyan even for everything, since they are under one uniting roof and not outside.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as advised by Horav Shlomo Miller and Horav Aharon Miller Shlit’a.