PURELY COMMENTARY
1"""mmimm•
WILLIAM H. MICHAELS, M.D., P.C.
Holocaust
Perinatal Resource Center of Mich.
Continued from Page 2
MATERNAL - FETAL MEDICINE
OBSTETRICS - GYNECOLOGY
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universities and on college
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There is the anti-Israelism
fomented by Arab hatreds
with endorsements by the
United Nations.
The need is for an
awareness of what is happen-
ing and a readiness to resist
the terrors. Every cause that
stimulates action must be
taken into account. That's the
lesson for the assembly on
Sunday.
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rayer is endless in our
daily functioning. Is-
rael Baal Shem Tov,
the founder of Chasidism
(1700-1760) whose creative
achievements keep inspiring
the generations, uplifts us un-
to this ideal: "Let your prayer
be a window to Heaven."
From the Talmud we ac-
quire continuing encourage-
ment about prayer with a
commitment to the organized
community. Abaye (280-339),
who was a Babylonian Amora
(Talmudic sage), is quoted in
Talmud Berakot:
"In prayer, always associate
yourself with the congrega-
tion, and say "Our God, lead
us . . ."
Judah Halevi (1085-1140),
the Spanish Jewish poet and
philosopher, in his classic
work, The Kuzari, wrote:
To be heard, a prayer
must be for, or in, a
congregation.
Praying only for oneself
is like . . . refusing to assist
fellow citizens in the repair
of their walls . . . In a con-
gregation, one makes up
for the defects of the other.
We always take it for
granted that community —
Kehillah — is dominant in
Jewish life. Yet there are con-
ditions that create challenges
in communities. One such
comes from an ultra-Orthodox
movement. Agudat Harabo-
nim gave emphasis to the im-
portance of the mechitzah in
the synagogue. The viewpoint
was published in the
Orthodox-motivated Jewish
Press which published it as
follows:
Jewish law prohibits
mixed sitting in the
synagogue of men and
women together, even if the
men and women are seated
on separate seats. Each
synagogue must have a
kosher mechitzah between
the men's and women's
sections.
A synagogue which lacks
a kosher mechitzah is not
considered kosher and it is
prohibited to pray in it.
Jews who live in sections
which do not have a kosher
synagogue with a proper
mechitzah, should arrange
a minyan in a private home
if possible. Otherwise, it is
preferable to pray at home
alone and under no cir-
cumstances should they
pray in a synagogue which
has no mechitzah.
It is prohibited to be a
member of such a syna-
gogue and it is also pro-
hibited to support such a
synagogue morally or
financially. It is prhobited
to travel to a synagogue on
the Sabbath or on holidays.
It is preferable to pray
alone at home.
Attention appropriately
given to this codification by a
well known faction in Or-
thodoxy calls for proper ex-
planation of the meaning and
adherence to the mechitzah in
the synagogue.
The definition of it in the
Jewish Concepts by Rabbi
Philip Birnbaum details the
following:
The women's section at
the Temple is referred to in
the Mishnah as ezrath
nashim eight times. During
the Beth Shoevah festivi-
ties and other religious oc-
casions, the women oc-
cupied their separate sec-
tion in order to avoid any
possible frivolity resulting
from contact with the men.
We are told: "As this still
led to levity, it was in-
stituted that the women
should sit above, and the
men below" (Sukkah
51b-52a). This is followed
by a biblical quotation to
the effect that men and
women are to keep apart
during religious functions
(Zechariah 12:12).
The problem of mixed
pews, separate seating and
mechitzah (partition) in the
synagogue has engaged
the attention of many con-
gregations for years. Some
prominent rabbis state that
a synagogue with mixed
pews loses its status as a
holy place in the judgment
of Halakhah. They declare:
It is simply untrue that
separate seating in a
synagogue, or elsewhere,
has anything at all to do
with equality or inequality.
-
These are facts that are not
necessarily presented for
disputation. They are a shar-
ing of knowledge about
Jewish codification.
They are provided here to
encourage continuing ac-
quisition of information about
basic Jewish teachings pro-
vided by the many factions in
Jewry.
❑