A balcony?! Really!?
By Rebecca Rogowski
In Sukkah 51a we learn that the Levites „[…] would introduce a significant repair[…]“ (וּמְתַקְּנִין שָׁם תִּיקּוּן גָּדוֹל) in the Women’s Courtyard (עֶזְרַת נָשִׁים) „at the conclusion of the first Festival“ (בְּמוֹצָאֵי יוֹם טוֹב הָרִאשׁוֹן שֶׁל חַג). This Tikkun gadol really intrigued my Chavruta and me, especially because earlier we learnt that „One who did not see the Celebration of the Place of the Drawing never saw celebration in his days.
(אָמְרוּ, כָּל מִי שֶׁלֹּא רָאָה שִׂמְחַת בֵּית הַשּׁוֹאֵבָה, לֹא רָאָה שִׂמְחָה מִיָּמָיו: ) Which is quite the statement!
So we wondered what this Tikkun could be? What kind of Tikkun did the Levites introduce on this great and joyful celebration? We assumed all kinds of things. I mean think of the other contexts we know the expression Tikkun from.
We immediately thought about Tikkun Olam, which has come to be associated with social action and pursuing of social justice.
While I'm aware that the origin of the word, as it used in the Mishnah, refers to a social policy or a law which is meant to keep social order alive, I have to admit coming from a liberal lefty jewish family this was not where my mind went first.
The other context a majority of jewish people will be familiar with it might be Tikkun Leil Shavuot. The all-night (or at least until midnight) Torah study session based on the kabbalistic practice. This practise shows our deep devotion toTorah and our excitement to remember the moment we as a people received Torah at Sinai.
My Chavruta and I were wondering for some study session what this Tikkun in the Woman's Court could have been.
But in the end we were quite disappointed when we learned that the Gemara lets us know that the Tikkun of the Beit HaSheuva celebration was „[…]a balcony. And they instituted that the women should sit above and the men below.“ (גְּזוּזְטְרָא וְהִתְקִינוּ שֶׁיְּהוּ נָשִׁים יוֹשְׁבוֹת מִלְמַעְלָה וַאֲנָשִׁים מִלְּמַטָּה).
A balcony? Really? I was hoping for something different…why? I personally do not like to go to Shuls where I, as a woman, have to sit on a balcony. I feel better about separate seating if the seats are on the same floor. Still the concept of Mechitza is something that I have a dislike for.
I do not mean to abolish the practise of Mechitza. I also do not want to tell other female identifying people how they should feel about Mechitza. I see myself as an intersectional feminist and therefore I'm aware that there is no one way of being a woman. Woman from different backgrounds have different realities of life, different goals and that I should not judge them for this.
What I am saying is that I personally do not feel comfortable with it because I simply do not feel counted, appreciated, seen or wanted. But why is that?
I’m convinced that it has something to do with how I was introduced to the principle of gender division in Shul. My Sabba did not go to synagogue regularly, but when he did I joined him. I sat next to him and I enjoyed it. My mom never went with us and so it was a special time shared between my Sabba and me.
One time - I just turned 13 - I was going with him and we sat down together next to each other as we always did. It's important to say that we were the only people in our row. But even bevor the Avoda started we were approached by an older man who looked me in the eyes and said: „This is no place for a proper young lady, you are no longer a child and you cant sit next to your Sabba anymore. Go hurry sit in the woman section!“
My Sabba was my main connection too synagogue and that night there were no other kids my age at synagogue. So I sat all alone with no one familiar. Also, keep in mind that this particular Shul had and has a liberal self-conception.
I felt not wanted, discriminated based on my sex, not seen and abandoned. Later when I learnt from my Sabba that I also was not counted for the Minyan and was not allowed to make Aliyah, my aversion for the woman section and therefor for Shul with them just kept on growing. Later on I announced that I did not wish to ever go to that Shul again.
This incident among many others made me feel that there was no place for me in traditional Judaism. And so for many years I only took part in the Jewish home based celebrations avoiding the jewish community of my city actively.
At this place of time - over twelve years after the Shul incident - I find myself in a position were I returned back to Judaism, passionately studying Jewish text, finding beauty in observing certain aspects of Halacha. All things that I, as a 13 year old, could never have believed would ever happen.
But still gender separation and the exclusion of woman in service, even though I recognize that woman are technically exempt from time-bound Mitzvot, is deeply troubling to me.
Why that? As I said I believe myself to be an intersectional feminist who refuses to dictate to other woman how they should behave or to say what and what not makes them a „good feminist“ (there is no such thing as a „good“ or „bad“ feminist in my book, besides Terfs and racist feminists). And as such I have to stress again: this text is not meant to say that it is problematic if you feel more comfortable in gender segregated Shuls. You do you! I will even defend your right to do so! There is no one size fits all!
But yet I can not bring myself to go to such places of worship. And when I do it feels wrong to be there.
This for me is highly tide to the reasoning by which the Balcony is justified. If we continue to read our Daf it states that they had tried all sorts of seating arrangement and still it „[…]would come [that they] conduct themselves with levity“. (וְהָיוּ בָּאִים לִידֵי קַלּוּת רֹאשׁ). So the term used in the Text is Kalut Rosh, if we would translate it literally one would translate it as light head. Right, so what kind of behavior would be considered light headed behavior?
The rabbis bring the following verse on Daf 52a: “The land will eulogize, each family separately; the family of the house of David separately, and their women separately[…] (הָאָרֶץ מִשְׁפָּחוֹת מִשְׁפָּחוֹת לְבָד מִשְׁפַּחַת בֵּית דָּוִד לְבָד וּנְשֵׁיהֶם לְבָד)(Zechariah 12:12) in oder to justify that they used to put up a woman's balcony.
How so? They argue that it is an Kal vachomer. By saying that if in the future when the evil inclination (יֵצֶר הָרָע) does not have power over people, nevertheless the Torah says: Men separately and woman separately; then even more so should be they separated when they are involved in celebration, as they are still dominated by the evil inclination.
So you could say the main argument for gender separation is to prevent inappropriate behavior or even thoughts. Besides this being very heteronormative -a s not every person is only attracted to a person of the opposed gender - I understand how in a highly gender segregated society the sudden mix of genders could lead to inappropriate behavior. Today however this does not speak to me. Prayer and service are times I'm not concerned with finding a spouse or thinking of sexual things, even writing that feels just wrong. I also do not believe that you prevent people from behaving inappropriately by segregating them. You do so by teaching them how to behave respectfully and by teaching them about consent. This being said I understand that for some woman female only spaces can be safe spaces, and I'm all here for people to be able to choose what they are comfortable with.
Because I recognize that in many Jewish context and especially in orthodox identifying spaces equality does not mean sameness, and people can feel comfortable with being assigned different roles based on their gender. However I have a deep spiritual need for being seen, heard (loud and clear!) and counted (in to the minyan).