Shut: Mechitza
| Since Talmudic and Geonic times (post-5th ce) Jews have probably prayed with some form of separation of the sexes. This was codified in the middle ages. R’ David Golinkin, a masorti rabbi, wrote a teshuvah showing how the mechitza is an ancient custom but that people who choose not to use it have support within the tradition for not doing. When the Conservative-synogogue attending Jews began demanding removal of the mechitza, the scholar Louis Ginzberg wrote that Jews should have respect for tradition and that purported liberals should try to be more open-minded and respect the tradition. see jewish for an excerpt from this view. So we see, this is both an issue of tradition, comfort, and respect of our peers. It is unfair to tell a man that he should be able to ignore a woman at will. The sexual drive is not within reason that one can will it to ignore a provocative limb. This, however, does not necessitate the removal of women to a separate section. Men and women may choose to be locally seating within a large room. The problem with a mechitza is not the separation of men from women, in my estimation, but the removal of women from the service altogether. In New York at Orchei Eliezer and in Jerusalem at Yedidya there are progressive Modern Orthodox shuls that grant women more rights in the minyan including divrei Torah and kiddush. Congregations should congregate at shul, but they should do so to pray. Prayer is man’s conversation with the Almighty Creator of the Universe and Personal Companion. Friends and relations are not necessary for this conversation, though it is nice. Modern Orthodox Jews somehow manage to juggle the mechitza with modern values (a vague phrase). Prayer-time is for prayer, not socializing. Socializing should be at the kiddush. Please understand that I am trying to be as tolerant as possible. I daven without a mechitza in most cases. I also find some women in that minyan distracting and try not to daven near them. Women should wear clothes that do not embarrass them when they try to move. -Benjamin, UPenn Biomedical Science, ‘00 |
