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Some shuls have several minyanim back to back. If one arrives before the Torah reading of the 8:30 minyan and has finished davening before the Torah reading of the 9:30 minyan (to whose Kedusha one responded), is one obligated to stay for that Torah reading?

More simply, when there are several minyanim, may one participate out of order? This may be related to Dealing with Other Minyanim, as well as the minhag Arizal to daven at one's own pace rather than skipping around to say parts with the tzibur.

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    Who says one is obligated to stay for the Torah reading if he did not yet hear it? He can hear it anytime during the day?
    – Gershon Gold
    Commented Sep 20, 2011 at 17:28
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    Could you please clarify what "before the Torah reading" means? Does that mean that he heard the Torah reading? In addition, would the second Minyan still have 10 people if you left?
    – Shmuel
    Commented Oct 23, 2011 at 5:16

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Are you obligated to stay for the next minyan's Torah reading?

According to the Rama (OC 55:2), if you are not the tenth man in their minyan, you are allowed to leave.

What if you're the tenth man in their minyan? The Mishna Berura (there, #12) writes that even if you are the tenth man, you only have to stay to the end of that particular section of davening. In our case, if you're the tenth man in the next minyan, and you answered Kedusha with them, you are required to stay through the end of Chazarat haShatz. However, since Kriat haTorah is a new section, you are not obligated to stay. (However, you should stay until they finish davening. See Mishna Berura 132:2.5)

(If you didn't hear that days Torah reading, you should stay, but whether you are obligated to hear Kriat haTorah with a minyan is a separate question.)

Can one participate in davening out of order?

Since the Shulchan Aruch writes (OC 236:3) that one should skip around in order to participate with a minyan, it appears that one not only can, but should participate out of order. And based on my above answer, which mentioned that there are different, separate, sections of davening, it follows that one should be allowed to "minyan-hop," saying some parts with one minyan and other parts with another. (However, I'm not a rabbi, and you should ask your local rabbi for his opinion on this issue.)

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  • You absolutely cannot change the order of prayers, with exceptions for skipping parts of e.g., psukei dezimra to sync shmonei esrei with the mynian. So if you catch an earlier kriat haTorah, you cannot say ashrei/aleinu with them and be yotzei for the next minyan. What you could do theoretically is to say ashrei/aleinu on your own in your minyan and leave during kriat haTorah. But CYLOR because this cannot be routine practice
    – mbloch
    Commented Dec 21, 2015 at 17:45
  • @mbloch Ashrei and Alenu aren't part of the order of prayers. They're just nice things people usually say every day after prayers. If you say them some other time or not at all it's no big deal.
    – Double AA ♦
    Commented May 16, 2018 at 14:15

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