It doesn’t leave much room for the imagination, and it doesn’t allow for a strategy for looking over without being too obvious. Case in point- I was in Riverdale this past shabbos and on Friday night we davened at RJC (Riverdale Jewish Center) and their mechitza isn’t that short, its height is low because it runs flat along the mens and womens sections while both sides have seats that rise along a gentle slope- which mean s you can see everything above a certain point. Furthermore, the seats are sort of facing each other which makes matters worse.
So of course this whole crew of women walks in and plops down right next to each other on one bench. It kind of looked like the wave every time they got up. In fact every time the shul had to stand it looked like the wave. I always wonder if certain shuls do the wave just for fun.
So I’m trying to look at the girls, but unfortunately I never wear my glasses besides for movies or driving and couldn’t see a darn thing. All I could see was that there was one redhead, they were all skinny and that they shuckeled very slowly. In fact I came to an observation about shuckeling over shabbos. The more modern a shul is the slower the shuckeling is. It just seems to me that in modern shuls there is less moving about. People sit and stand, and walk out- thats it.
So in a nutshell I prefer a taller mechitza so it allows for covert operations that let me sneak in close and chop a little staring action. Oh and it helps my kavanah too- because I can’t multitask, so I have to wait for a lull in davening to try and hone my mechitza peeking skills.
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
One nice thing about pretty ladies in Shul is that you’re pretty sure they are Jewish.
Its true, although they are hardly ever pretty and when they are pretty I start doubting the that the right side is Jewish
Is it m’chayav for a frum homo to daven on the opposite side so they don’t lose their Kavanah? Yes, the Kamkatchka Rebbe says, but only if they are so ugly as to not create any temptation to the others. ; – )
Interesting concept-
At least there’s separate seating.
So you want high mechitzas so you can have kavanna. Good for you!
Well so I can have kavanah and so it makes looking at the girls during laining and other lulls in davening more interesting. More of a challenge
“which makes matters worse.”
i think you mean it makes matters better.
have you ever been to atlanta? i forget which shul, but they have a great mehitzah setup.
also try romer in teaneck
High mechitza, low mechitza, who cares in America? I don’t understand the see-through ones, even with a “solid top.” Such a farce and sitting in the round, so that you can see everyone of every sex.
In the 60’s, those bleacher, mechitza from the floor, so nothing in front of the “upper women,” would have had you wearing your driving glasses. Minis were worn in MO’s.
Two responses:
1. Wear your classes.
2. Don’t expect all of the folks stuck behind one of those Berlin Wall mechitzot to be happy about the set-up just because it enhances *your* kavannah.
anyone who wants real kavanah wears a blindfold in shul (I’m kidding). Seriously, though, Hesh, I don’t have your eyesight, but how much can you scope without your specs on, anyway?
I go to a “pluralistic” school and the mechitzah in the orthodox minyan is barely halachically high enough. It’s the most distracting thing in the world, because even if you try to not look, it’s impossible.
The women are much more holy than the men.
It should therefore be the WOMEN who start putting up the mechitza, and dividing the space in the synagogue – for the men.
The women have been stupid enough to accept the:
walls;
fences;
black opaque glass;
single windows covered by a thick opaque curtain;
duvets; and
canvases
that the men (‘dayanim’ &’rabbis’) have put up in the synagogues to screen them off.
Remember the thick curtains that are actually nailed to the glass, just in case a woman may wish to view a Sefer Torah.
This is a complete insult to the women – and an insult to Hashem, and the Shechinah.
It is time this was corrected – by the women.