Mechitzah in Hebrew means separation or division. It refers to the physical separation of the men’s area from the women’s area in Orthodox synagogues during prayer. This separation is achieved through a special section for women, such as a balcony, or a physical partition that separates them. The prohibition of men and women sitting together, according to some Orthodox rabbis, derives from the Bible, so for them, it becomes obligatory.

The concept of Mechitzah is not mentioned anywhere in the Talmud. There is only one discussion that refers to a barrier that was erected in the Temple to separate women from men, exclusively during a part of the Sukkot celebration. Rav, one of the Amorite sages, also refers to a prophecy of Zechariah that said that after the war between Gog and Magog, mourning should be conducted by separating the men of each family from their wives. Another explanation offered by some scholars is the fact that there were three courtyards in the Temple of Jerusalem: the first was for women, but where both men and women could sit; the second was exclusively for men; and the third was for the priests.

Historically, there is no evidence that a mechitzah existed in ancient synagogues. Archaeological excavations have found nothing to indicate this, but this is not absolute proof that they did not exist. Philo writes in his book that in some communities in the first century, men were separated from women. There is evidence of mechitzot in synagogues as early as the Middle Ages.

It was in 1845, in the Reform synagogue in Berlin, where the mechitzah was officially eliminated for the first time, and in theory, women could sit anywhere and not just in the balcony as was the case before. Even so, for many years, women continued to sit separately from men. It was in the United States that synagogues gradually adopted the rule of men and women sitting together.

Today, gender segregation is one of the things that distinguishes Orthodoxy from other movements. Virtually all non-Orthodox synagogues lack mechitzahs. For the Orthodox, a temple without a mechitzah, which separates men and women, is not a kosher temple. The Orthodox maintain that sitting together with women distracts men from their purpose of praying to God. Ultimately, the mechitzah is more of a custom than a commandment. But its divisive function has extended beyond separating men from women: it now separates Judaism into two camps.

By Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: Jonathan D. Sarna: The debate of mixed seating in American synagogues. Chad Spigel: Reconsidering the question of separate seating in ancient synagogues.