Mechitzas Final

Tosafot Rosh Kiddushin 52b

Sometimes a woman would enter [the azara], such as a Sota or a Nazirite for waving a sacrifice…and even when not necessary, there is no prohibition if she enters [the courtyard]…Still, it is well-stated “Whence is a woman in the azara?” Since it is uncommon for her to enter, as it is in synagogues and in batei midrash.

Responsa Iggerot Moshe, Orach Chayyim I, no. 41

However, from the eulogy in future times [in Zecharya], from which we learn [about gender separation], it is inferred that it [mingling between genders] is prohibited in a place where they gather for some obligation to gather. And without the need of an obligation of gathering, it was permissible even in the Temple, as in the case of Chana who prayed in the Mikdash near Eli…

But in a place where people assemble for optional matters, or even for weddings, I am in doubt whether this prohibition applies, in a situation where there is no concern about seclusion. I am more inclined to say that this prohibition does not apply, for we find with respect to the eating of the korban Pesach that men and women would eat it in the same house, and there were several families there, for each and every korban Pesach had more than ten counted to it.

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.

Responsa Seridei Eish, I:8

One should not be concerned that during prayer they [men] will end up gazing [at women] for the purpose of pleasure. It is clear that what Rambam wrote [in his commentary to the Mishna] “that the men not look at the women,” his intention was that they not gaze for the purpose of pleasure, but mere seeing was not prohibited…That the young women pray out loud, there is no issue at all. The great sages of Ashkenaz, among them Rav Azriel Hildesheimer, already permitted men and women to sing Shabbat songs together, for two reasons: 1. Two voices [sounding simultaneously] are not heard. 2. Sacred songs don’t bring people to thoughts of transgression.

Shu”t Tzitz Eliezer 7:8

Eliezer Yehuda Waldenberg(1915–2006), Jerusalem

And even though in chapter 8, halacha 12 of “The Laws of Lulav”, Rambam writes that the reason is so that the sexes do not mix. But in Perush HaMishna he says that the reason is so that the men would not look at the women, and it is only possible with a divider that is as tall as a person or curtains. It is also discussed in Tosfot Yom Tov in TB Sukkot, who brings the Rambam’s Perush al HaMishna and adds: when men look at women it brings them to have kalut rosh ....

And here the question of the mechitza was already asked in the previous generation in the book Lev HaIvri where many great rabbis signed that is prohibited to make a mechitza that separates the women’s and men’s section just in a way that the men are not able to see the women, and if it was done that way then one should not enter...

I found in the Sh”ut Maharam Shick who was asked a question from those corrupt ones who want to break the separation between the women’s section and the men’s section, that it should not be fully closed by boards, but just having pillars that one can see through and been seen...God forbid that you would allow this to take place, because we say that it is obligatory to have a separation between men and women like there was in the Beit HaMikdash...

And the fact that the Shulchan Aruch doesn’t mention the law of putting up a mechitza in a shul, then they did not have these problems, because all shuls had a thick wall between the shul and the women’s section, and the women would hear from small windows in the wall, and so the question of a mechitza was never asked.

I think that it is obligatory to have a mechitza that separates the women and the men, in a way that the men will not come to see the women...

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 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.