Q&A: “Family” Seating During Prayer
“Family” Seating During Prayer
Question
Hello Rabbi,
In our street minyan during the coronavirus period, a custom developed of sitting by families (each one near the entrance to its home), with men and women together. The benefit from the standpoint of coronavirus is obvious, since the family in any case lives together and distance is maintained between families. But the arrangement is liked by the participants, and discussion has begun about the possibility of continuing it after the coronavirus days.
In an initial examination that I carried out, the following conclusions came up:
- The Talmudic sources on which separation was based (tractate Sukkah and tractate Kiddushin) do not speak at all about a synagogue or about Jewish law requiring separation during prayer, nor about permanent enactments.
- There is no evidence of partitions in all the synagogues found in the Land of Israel from the period of the Mishnah and Talmud, but there is evidence of women who came to pray.
- I did not find discussion of the subject in the laws of prayer or synagogue among the medieval authorities (Rishonim), even though a separate women’s section in the synagogue is known from the Middle Ages.
- The halakhic sources on the subject are mainly discussions by the later authorities (Acharonim), who derive the obligation of separation from the above-mentioned passages in the Talmud and take it for granted that there must be gender separation in the synagogue (the reason it is not mentioned by the medieval authorities is because it is self-evident), and add to that various modesty considerations (the prohibition of looking, a woman’s singing voice, etc.).
What emerges from the above, in my humble opinion, is that there is not really a first-rank source in halakhic rulings for prohibiting mixed prayer. The claim that the matter was not discussed because it was self-evident may perhaps indicate the prevailing custom, but not a basis for a halakhic prohibition.
My question:
- In your opinion, is there a halakhic prohibition against mixed prayer by men and women, and if so what is its source (I am not referring to the question of women’s roles in prayer, which has been discussed at length both on the site and elsewhere)
- Is there a difference in this matter between seating by families and ordinary mixed seating
- Is there a difference in this matter between a temporary minyan and a permanent minyan in a synagogue
Thank you, and happy holidays
Answer
Hello.
I have written more than once that there is no halakhic source for separation in the synagogue. “They made a great enactment there,” etc., is a forced and artificial source. But that is how people practiced. I am speaking where the women are dressed in a way that is permitted and one can pray facing them and beside them.
Therefore one cannot say that it is forbidden to pray together, even with women who are not one’s wife. People did not have the practice of doing this. The prayer is certainly not invalidated; at most you may have violated a custom. So there is no issue here for a halakhic ruling, neither first-rank nor second-rank.
From here on, any distinction I make will be arbitrary (family or not, temporary minyan or permanent, etc.). If it is very important and very beneficial in your opinion, then to the best of my understanding there is room to do it. Were it not for that, it is preferable to follow the custom. And perhaps if it is not a fixed place of prayer there is more room to be lenient, because there there is no custom. Perhaps…