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means that the requirement for ten men for prayer is rabbin-
ic, because its derivation from the above passuk, ‘I shall be
sanctified,’ is only rabbinic. It is explained in Yevamos (81a)
that according to the opinion that it is uncertain whether or
not an androginos is a male, if he is a kohen his wife can eat
terumah that is of rabbinic obligation [e.g. terumah of most
fruits and vegetables], because we are lenient in regard to a
rabbinic doubt so here too, if the obligation to have ten men
is only rabbinic [an androginos can complete the minyan].

However, at the end of the response, he writes,“For all the
above reasons it appears to me that he can be counted for a
minyan in a difficult situation but the status of a definite
androginos [i.e. the Maharam Shick’s questioner asked about
an individual whom others assumed was an androginos but
who had not been established as such with certainty] is not
yet clear to me.”

I asked my father-in-law Rav Y.S. Elyashiv zt”l, whether it is possible
to follow the Maharam Schick’s ruling against that of the Mishnah
Berurah (55,3) who rules than an androginos may not be counted for
a minyan. He answered me that even the Maharam Schick was only
speaking about a difficult situation, where there will be no minyan
unless the androginos is counted and under such circumstances one
can rule like the Maharam Schick.

Now, on the Maharam Schick’s basic premise [that a partial male
has the same obligation as a full male] one can apparently ask from
the Tosefta’s ruling (Berachos 5,7): “A person who is half slave and
half free [i.e. he was owned by two partners, one of whom freed his
share] cannot discharge the mitzvah obligation of another, neither of
his own type [half and half ], nor of others [a complete slave or a free
man].” Why doesn’t the Tosefta write that as a partial free man he can
discharge others’ obligations in the same way that [according to the
Maharam Shick] the androginos’ male ‘part’ can discharge others’ in
the mitzvah of prayer and can be counted for a minyan -- or perhaps
he can be counted for a minyan but cannot discharge others? Why

The Hermaphrodit 2 161