Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Daf Yomi - Sukkah 53 - P.S. Regarding Mechitzah

by Rabbi Ephraim Nisenbaum

It seems that the mechitza in the Beis Hamikdash was only because of the concern of levity because of the festivities of Beis Hashoeiva. There were often women in the Ezras Nashim to bring korbanos, yet we don't find that it warranted a mechitza. How do we learn out a mechitza for davening from Simchas Beis Hashoeiva? It would seem more reasonable to learn out a mechitza for festive occasions such as chasunas, which Reb Moshe says is not really a chiyuv, from Simchas Beis Hashoeiva.
Incidentally, that would explain why they wren't concerned about the tzaddikim dancing in the middle seeing the women. Since they were involved in avodas Hashem, there was no concern of levity. That may be why the plain people didn't actually dance themselves, since there dancing may have led to levity and there was concern about seeing the women.
Rav Elya Lopian's story was specifically by a wedding, where levity was a concern, not necessarily in other situations.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think Rabbi Nisenbaum answered his own "kashia". The "hamon am", who were not involved in Avodas Hashem were in danger of succumbing to the Yetzer Hora without a mechitzah. Sadly to say, this is exactly the situation most of us find ourselves in when we're in shul, as we struggle to concentrate on davening. If I'm not mistaken, (I don't have Igros Moshe handy right now) Rav Moshe ZT"L actually says something along these lines in in one of his t'shuvos about mechitzos. Perhaps if Rav Moshe saw the level of socializing that exists at simchos and other events today, he would have taken a stricter position there, too.