Concept of the Mehitzah in Synagogues
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The mehitzah is the partition or screen in synagogues between the space reserved for men and that for women, with the latter generally being in the rear or upstairs. The origin of the mehitzah is found in the talmudic description of the festivities held on the second evening of the feat of Tabernacles in the court of women of the Temple, and the Talmud states that men and women were allotted separate space. There are other sources for the separation of the sexes in worship, as practiced in traditional synagogues, and they may be found in midrashic literature. The concept is an ancient one, and remains of synagogues discovered in ancient Palestine contain galleries that have been taken as belonging to the women's sections. The mehitzah was abolished in Europe by a reform movement in the 19th century, though it has been revived in the practice of some congregations and has been a feature in Orthodox American synagogues as well. The mehitzah has been controversial among American Jews because it deals with the separation of the sexes in the House of Worship in a society that does not recognize the need for such separation, and this has produced a variety of arguments on both sides as well as court cases challenging the practice. There is now a body of case law on the subject both in Jewish, Talmudic law and in the American court system. The question has been raised whether the separation of the sexes in the Orthodox service is acceptable in contemporary Amer
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s in Hebrew.
Reform Jews take a radical approach and declare that revelation is not central to belief and that even the commandments in the Torah can be discarded if they conflict with the demands of modern living. Reformed Jews agree that God may have revealed Himself to Moses, but they deny that God revealed the Torah as an eternal covenant with His people:
In a more general sense it is difficult to say much about what Reform does stand for, because it appears that each congregation is able to make its own laws, regarding even the most fundamental things. . . Nevertheless, it should not for a moment be thought that Reform Jews ar any less Jewish in the basic sense than their more observant brethren.
In America, the different Jewish sects have taken a different approach to maintaining their specific community and have shaped their different synagogues to reflect differences in belief. Reform and Conservative synagogues have no separate section for men and women, who sit together during the services. In Orthodox practice, separation of the sexes is an absolute law. The reason given for this is that women are a distracting influence and that it is not possible to concentrate on the prayers if the sexes are mixed. In pra
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Reform Conservative, Jewish Talmudic, Orthodox Hebrew, Morris Max, MOVEMENTS Jew, Herman Hertz, Israel Women, Near Eastern, Norman Lamm, Chevra Thilim, separation sexes, women synagogue, separation women, separation women synagogue, women synagogue ed, synagogue mehitzah separation, sanctity synagogue, synagogue mehitzah, mehitzah separation, ktav publishing, publishing 1987, synagogue ed, mehitzah separation women, york ktav publishing, jeanne litvin,
Approximate Word count = 5256
Approximate Pages = 21 (250 words per page)
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