Tashlumin with a minyan

Question

If a person accidentally forgets to daven during the day, in most cases he has the opportunity to "make up" that davening by saying shmoneh esrei twice in the next davening. This is called tashlumin.

Lechatchila, a person should daven with a minyan. Is this the case for tashlumin as well (ignoring the fact that presumably the minyan didn't get up and leave immediately after his first shmoneh esrei)? What if he could never have managed to find a minyan for the tefila that he missed, but happened to have one for his "make up"? Is it as if he davened his missed tefila with a minyan, even though he could not possibly have done that?

Answer 1

On the one hand, davening with a Minyan is always a good thing. It is a fairly recent innovation that you can get a Minyan at all hours. In earlier times (and in some places even today) you can't really do that (even if there are enough people living there to support it).

On the other hand, Tashlumin has to be specifically connected to a time of obligatory prayer, and follow it in reasonably short order. This seems to imply that praying with a second minyan would be a contradiction to this idea.

Also, Tashlumin is a special request for mercy outside of an obligation, so it is more comparable to a Tefilas Nedava, in that it is not something congregational.

Based on the above facts, my answer would be no, there is no reason to specifically go looking for a Minyan, and it doesn't count as a group praying together.

Answer 2

I've done the following (though now I cannot recall who advised me to do so):

Daven the regular Tefillah (silent Shemoneh 'Esreh) with the Minyan, and then do Tashlumin during the repetition.(Point 1) This follows from the idea that there are two requirements of Tefillah/Tzibbur - one is Tefillah BETZIBUR (praying WITH the congregation), which is fulfilled by praying in sync with the congregation, and one is Tefillath HATZIBUR (praying OF the congregation), which is usually fulfilled by the Shaliah Tzibur in the repetition, but which can be fulfilled by anyone who prays in sync with him.(Point 2) I have also heard this latter idea in the name of R' JB Soloveitchik, though I've no idea when/where he said it, along with the idea that if you miss Tefillah BETZIBUR you should at least attempt to fulfill Tefillath HATZIBUR immediately following.(Point 3)

Essentially, the unknown-origin idea (first point above) appears to me to be an extension of the unknown-origin-Rav idea (second/third points above).

It's not clear to me if the first idea actually is preferable or not, and I can see reasons to advise for/against it.