Q&A: A Partition Between Men and Women
A Partition Between Men and Women
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I don’t understand how the Rabbi permits mixed prayer!?
An explicit Talmudic passage (in Sukkah), chapter five, page 52:
"…Rav said: They found a verse and expounded it: 'And the land shall mourn, every family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself, and their women by themselves' (Zechariah 12). They said: Is this not an a fortiori inference? If in the time to come—when they are occupied with mourning and the evil inclination has no power over them—the Torah said: men separately and women separately, then now, when they are occupied with rejoicing and the evil inclination has power over them, all the more so."
Does the Rabbi think one cannot derive an a fortiori inference from mourning to a synagogue!? That is quite astonishing.
(Of course, this is even before Maimonides, but I know that you sometimes disagree with the medieval authorities, so there is no point bringing them here.)
Answer
First of all, I don’t recall having permitted it. What I wrote was that this prohibition has no real source.
The "great enactment" (which I mentioned in my remarks) is not brought in the Talmud as a halakhic source, but as a description of something that happened, appropriate to its place and time. Where do the halakhic decisors bring all this (Maimonides, in the Laws of Shofar 8:12, brings it as a description regarding what was done in the Temple, and nothing more)?
What is presented in this way is not binding Jewish law, but at most a guideline that should be considered according to the place, time, and circumstances.
And what cannot be derived from there is not because of the difference between mourning and a synagogue, but because these are aggadic statements and descriptions, not halakhic instructions. Even at funerals there is no halakhic need to separate, and that is indeed the common practice.