Great Article, some excellent points.

Judaism's rituals thrive on the concept of seperation: holy from ordinary, milk from meat, life from death, and here it's men from women.

but in the case of the mehitza, men and women are separated in a dominance-submission scheme. there's no equality. And what you said about women potentially being "distracted" by men's beauty is not even relevant in the way many synagagues are built. They have women in the back looking ahead at or down from the balcony at the men. Also women are forced to experience the men's leadership from the Bima. THe communal experience of going to services would be more honest if we thought of another way to "seperate" within the synagogue, such as those wh are in the mood to pray from those who aren't, or children from adults, or something else.

Nice article, I really enjoyed it.

jessica