Mechitza

[1] A divider in the form of a balcony was established in the Temple in Jerusalem for the Simchat Beit HaShoeivah ceremony, a time of great celebration and festivity.

[3] Although the synagogue mechitza is not mentioned anywhere in Talmudic literature, there is a discussion of a barrier between men and women, used at the Sukkot festivities in the Jerusalem Temple.

[1] Scholars have long debated the extent to which gender segregation and a mechitza between the sexes existed in synagogues during the periods of the Second Temple, the Mishnah, and the Talmud.

Shmuel Safrai, through a combination of textual analysis and archaeological evidence, has argued that while women consistently attended synagogue services, there is no definitive evidence to support the existence of a partition separating the genders or the existence of a separate women's aid (Ezrat Nashim).

A mechitza most commonly means the physical divider placed between the men's and women's sections in Orthodox synagogues and at religious celebrations.

[citation needed] Secondly, even if the sexes are separated, they should not be able to interact to a high degree during a religious service, lest this leads to gazing and impure thoughts.

The Jewish Ledger reported that as of 2005, "Beth Midrash Hagadol-Beth Joseph remains the only synagogue in the country affiliated with the Orthodox Union (OU) to have so-called 'mixed seating.

The partnership minyan movement, which seeks a greater synagogue role for women within an Orthodox context, requires a mechitza.

The Union for Traditional Judaism recently published a viewpoint arguing that a mechitza is not required to have a particular height by either Biblical law or rabbinic decree.

Conservative Judaism takes the position that the Mechitza referred to in Talmud Tractate Sukkah applied only to the festival of Sukkah in the Temple and that its use to separate men and women for synagogue worship and other occasions represents a custom rather than a requirement of core Jewish law, and is subject to contemporary Rabbinic re-examination.

Some Conservative synagogues (e.g. in Europe and Israel) also have a meḥitza or separate seating sections for men and women without a physical partition.

Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism, consistent with their view that traditional religious law is not mandatory in modern times and a more liberal interpretation of gender roles, do not use mechitzot in their synagogues.

[3] This development is historically connected with the United States; the original German Reform retained the women's balcony, although the "curtain or lattice-work" was removed.