Mechitza II: Structure מחיצה (ב): מבנה המחיצה

Responsa Maharam Shick OC 77

Now some wicked people have set out their hand to destroy in the women’s section the partition between the women’s section and the men’s section, so it will not be totally enclosed with boards, just with pillars, and they will be able to see and to be seen….And behold, God forbid that you righteous ones should be silent on the immodest deed that those brazen ones have committed, for according to the law we are obligated to make a separation between the men’s section and the women’s section…that the men not see the women, because it leads to frivolity [kalut rosh] and other transgressions.

Responsa Seridei Eish I:8

Indeed the rabbis of Hungary are very stringent and demand that the mechitza be higher than the heads of the women, and they go further and demand that, if the synagogue does not have a mechitza like this, it is prohibited to pray there, and it is prohibited for the women to come and pray and it is better for them to stay at home. Certainly their intention is for the good, to preserve modesty as it was practiced in prior generations, but in our times the situation has changed and nature has changed, and if women stay at home and don’t come to synagogue, they will lose their Judaism entirely, and it is certainly prohibited to push them away and distance them because of an excessive stringency that has no solid source in the Talmud or halachic authorities…In our time women are very disturbed if we distance them from houses of prayer, and going to prayer in synagogue in our time is the fulfillment of Judaism for women and for mothers.

Iggerot Moshe OC I:39

In synagogues where men and women gather to pray, it is better to make a balcony so the women are above. If for some reason it is difficult to make a balcony, they must make a real mechitza such that will prevent kalut rosh…Therefore, a mechitza of ten handbreadths from the ground is also not sufficient, as it has no effect on kalut rosh, for they can speak and have converse amply with women without any difficulty, and touch their hands, and there is no kalut rosh greater than this, and they are considered to be fully mingled and it is prohibited…But it makes sense, in my humble opinion, that a mechitza above shoulder height suffices, for we have seen that the mechitza is not for the prohibition of gazing…

Iggerot Moshe OC III:23

At the least a mechitza to shoulder height, and according to the measure of Rashi and Tosafot this is 18 handbreadths, and for Rashbam it is the amount of 17 handbreadths (see there), but as we have seen nowadays that shoulder height for most women is less, so one who is lenient with a mechitza of 60 inches [152 cm], which is five feet, one should not protest…There are synagogues that raised the floor of the women’s section a foot or more and don’t allow for raising the mechitza and this is not good in my humble opinion…but in any event I don’t say it is absolutely prohibited…

Responsa Divrei Yoel OC 10

For he erred in understanding the words of the Talmud as meaning that they were not particular about looking… What use is a shoulder-height mechitza for this if the heads and forms are exposed, can’t they have much speech and joking and frivolity, and the mechitza between the bodies is nothing…

Iggerot Moshe OC IV:32
…Two pretty wood panels made decoratively with many holes…in my humble opinion they are fit to make a mechitza, when through these holes it is impossible to come to kalut rosh…

Iggerot Moshe OC III:23

Aside from the matter of the mechitza, which is obligatory even for the most modest women, there is the matter of mechitza for the prohibition of actually looking at areas that must be covered, which have the status of erva in our time…Regarding a glass mechitza, it is effective for the law of mechitza, but is not effective for the prohibition of reciting Shema and prayer in the presence of erva…If it is a synagogue where they don’t tolerate women with exposed arms, etc., entering the synagogue, they can in compliance with the law make even a glass mechitza …

Iggerot Moshe OC V:12

… You asked whether a mechitza is necessary when praying in a place that is not regularly designated for prayer, for example, in a house of mourning, Heaven help us. Whether the women need to go to a separate room, or whether a separation of air is enough. It seems that halachically women in a house of mourning need to go to another room. The reason is that a house of mourning is a place open to the public…But if in practice the women do not agree to leave the room, it is considered ad hoc, and one does not need to avoid praying because of this. But in the house of a bridegroom, halachically there is no need for a mechitza, since it is not open to the public, but only to family members. Therefore, it is sufficient for the men who are praying to go to one corner where they can focus, and pray there…. You asked whether one needs a mechitza as a partition before only one or two women… Over the generations, the practice was that sometimes a poor woman would come into the beit midrash to receive charity, or a female mourner to recite kaddish, and the practical halacha in this matter requires investigation and depends on many factors… One may be lenient ad hoc, only up to two women and no more.

Racheli Weinstock, 'Mechitzot of Hope,' Mekor Rishon, February 21, 2020.

The rectification that was made in the Temple, separating men and women, affords me with an environment free of sexual tension, in which I can express the soul’s desires for the Creator with total freedom of voice and body, in a protected and safe space that allows for a pure prayer to break out without reservation. The impenetrable mechitza through which I do not see the men, which leaves me only in the presence of my fellow women, allows me to see the voices [of prayer] and to etch them in my heart.

Responsa Benei Banim 2:7

…With a mechitza that does not reach the ceiling, which then is considered as one place with the community.…Since the primary use of the ezrat nashim is that women pray and respond there to the prayer of the men and listen to the reading of the Torah…therefore the women’s section is drawn after the men’s section and [its distinction as its own domain] considered nullified.

Responsa Tzitz Eliezer 9:11

It is true that the predominant view in the responsa of our later sages is that sanctity is also inherent to the ezrat nashim, but nearly the vast majority of halachic authorities concede that it does not reach the level of sanctity of the sanctuary itself.