[Be-Ahavah U-Be-Emunah –
Matot-Masei 5773 – translated by R. Blumberg]
Question: I saw in
the Shulchan Aruch that men and women have to stay “far apart from one another”
(Even Ha-Ezer 21:1). But why? Why can't they coexist in natural, straightforward
purity and modesty? Why was it ruled that they have to distance themselves?
Perhaps
this was said for people who have unclean thoughts in their heads, but we are serious
people with pure hearts, so what is the problem if we mix?
Answer: You have
asked an important question that touches on a major issue. Indeed, the Mishnah
in Succah wrote that during the Temple Period, on the second night of Succot, at
the start of the celebrations of Chol Ha-Moed, they “effected a major
improvement” in the Women's section of the Temple. And what was that “major
improvement”?
The Talmud
answers: The men's and women's sections were initially on the same level, so
they installed a raised balcony and enacted that the women should celebrate on
that raised section, and the men below (Succah 51b).
The Rambam
comments: “It was so that the genders would not mix” (Hilchot Beit Ha Bechirah
5:9). Yet the Talmud asks: “How could they do this?” Rashi explains: “I.e., adding
a floor to an entire building.” and the Talmud continues: “Doesn't Scripture
state: 'All this was in writing, in accordance with G-d's wisdom' (Divrei
Ha-Yamim 1 28:19), meaning that the entire plan of the Temple was given by
Hashem and may not be changed? How then is
it possible to change the Temple? Weren't all its plans handed down by the prophets
via prophetic intuition?
The Talmud
answers: “They found a verse and they expounded on it: 'The Land shall mourn,
every family apart: The family of the house of David apart, and their wives
apart” (Zechariah 12:12).
What will
the mourning be about? Rashi explains:
"Zechariah prophesied that in the future they will mourn Mashiach ben Yosef
who will be killed in the apocalyptic War
of Gog and
Magog. And it says: 'The family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart,'
that even in a time of sorrow, the genders must be separated.”
The Talmud
continues: “We can logically deduce this: if, in the future, when they are preoccupied
with mourning and the evil impulse holds no sway over them, Scripture still states
that the men and women must remain separate, then now, when they are
preoccupied with rejoicing and the evil impulse does hold sway over them, they
should surely be kept separate.”
Rashi
explains: “When one is busy with mourning, one does not easily fall prey to frivolity.
In the future, however, the evil impulse will not hold sway, as it says, 'I shall
remove the
heart of stone' (Yechezkiel 36:26). In the Temple, however, they were
rejoicing, and they verged on frivolity, so they certainly needed separation.”
In other
words, there is a double proof of the need for gender separation. Not only (1)
will the
future mourning for Mashiach ben Yosef be a sad, serious time, but (2) the evil
impulse will already have disappeared. Even so, gender separation will be
maintained. By contrast, in the Temple on Succot, they were obviously
rejoicing, and the evil impulse still held sway.
We thus
derive that gender separation is required even on a very serious, sad occasion,
and even if there is no evil impulse.
Additionally,
Rambam (ibid.) held that that balcony was maintained all year long and not just
for the celebrations of Succot. What, then, was the “major improvement”
precisely of that time?
Maran
Ha-Rav Avraham Yitzchak Ha-Cohain Kook explains that during the Succot celebrations,
they would organize the celebration area with even more caution and modesty than
usual (Ma'amarei Ha-Re'eiyah, p. 513).
So we
derive that we must constantly prevent the mixing of genders.
I am not
addressing here the question of when you need a Mechitzah, a physical separation,
and when you do not, or the question of how high it must be. Rabbenu Ha-Rav Tzvi
Yehudah Kook was not a follower of the Satmar Rebbe. Even so, in the debate
between Ha-Gaon Ha-Rav Moshe Feinstein, who said that when absolutely
unavoidable, a shoulder-height Mechitzah was sufficient, and the Satmar Rebbe,
who said that it must be over the head, Rav Tzvi Yehuda sided with the Satmar
Rebbe, and he deduced this logically.
What I am
discussing here is the obligation to maintain gender separation and to prevent
mixed seating under all sorts of circumstances. We are neither wiser nor holier
than our Sages who enacted such separation at the Succot celebration of Chol Ha-Moed,
or than the Prophet Zechariah who said, in G-d's name, that this is what will
be at the future mourning for Mashiach ben Yosef, despite there being no evil
impulse.
May
we be privileged to increase modesty and purity.
