Separate Seating

I just want to thank the Hashem for the knowledge I have acquired through the senior Rabbi Kaplan...keep it up!!!

i have been to Sahbbats in many different countries. I remember one Erev Shabbat and the only singing was done by the mens' choir. Great choir, but i felt that it was entertainment. Maybe you get used to it. Doesn't resonate with me. There wasn't much alternative in this city. It's an old European city. I guess that the tradition came along somewhere along the line and it got maintained. It might be entertaining the first time. All i felt was exclusion. That choir was standing in the way of my Shabbat with Hashem. What this has to do with the article is the concept of exclusion. Intended or not, men have tended to take the moral high ground in worship. It's a false sense. It's a false sense that women would impede mens' worship. Mencan learn to cook and to look after children. Women can do just as well in the workforce, be the bread winner, and conduct religious services.
Come to think of it, it might be women who are standing in the way. Either way, it reflects jealousy.

You are right Jan. Besides, most men praying are not into it all that deeply..Most, not all, are a bit bored, and it is the social contact more than anything else that brings them to a shul. Women are easily more attractive than prayer.

i am a male. Separating the sexes in the mikvah i get. Separating in shul, i don't get. As long as the debate continues G-d is happy. Any constructive Torah debate/study makes Him smile.

this is something that i cannot understand and never will. if the men are so easily distracted by women that they cannot concentrate on their prayers, then what are their prayers worth? how devoted are they? G-d created BOTH men and women, so why should they be separated when the come to pray? i have heard so many 'reasons' given over the years and not one of them has made any sense to me. I cannot see how this serves Judaism in any way. I have been, am, and remain opposed to this practice.

I wish i had 45 minutes to hear your sermon, I have always been interested in equal rights for women in very aspect of Torah.. It is fine that Moses led the men in singing the Song At The Sea. Miriam led the women. The women brought out drums and tambourines and sang and danced. Both genders served G-d equally. Both genders have equal leadership abilities in all aspects of Judaism.

I am a male. If anybody is going to save the world from catastrophe, it will not be the men. History has shown how incapable they are to love their fellow man.

In Israel, a new Orthodox group, Hillel something has been established. It has 140 rabbis. It was just formed by Orthodox Jews, men and women alike and with equal powers, in response not only to the Haredi men, but also against the extremist men emerging in their own ranks.

Hope that these comments are appropriate to your sermon.

I always wondered whether the Miriam and the women had a mechitzah when they sang and danced shira. Rabbi Kaplan, do any commentators discuss this?

last week you stated the in "Bo the first two Mitzvah were given and the rest came at Sinai. However, The Mitzvah of the sabbath was given here in "B'shalach.

And Moses said: 'Eat that today; for today is a Sabbath unto the LORD; today you shall not find it in the field. 26 Six days you shall gather it; but on the seventh day is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none.' 27 And it came to pass on the seventh day, that there went out some of the people to gather, and they found none. 28 And the LORD said unto Moses: 'How long will you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? 29 See that the LORD has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide you every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.' 30 So the people rested on the seventh day.

b'h
very interesting discussion tittle as well as the development of a different meaning of this. Unfortunatly, still are groups of man and woman who feel that there is such thing as :ínferiority" all around the world and in Israel.
Once again, many thanks for this diferent view as in others one that allows me to comment at Rav. Isroel Schmotkin and proudly said: "you spend some time in Milwaukee". Shalom u'Beracha.