Sukkah, Daf Nun Aleph, Part 6

 

Introduction

This section begins a long discussion of the separation of the sexes that supposedly occurred during the Simchat Bet Hashoevah.

 

במוצאי יום טוב כו’. מאי תיקון גדול?

אמר רבי אלעזר: כאותה ששנינו, חלקה היתה בראשונה והקיפוה גזוזטרא, והתקינו שיהו נשים יושבות מלמעלה ואנשים מלמטה.

 

At the conclusion of the first festival day etc.

What was the great enactment?

R. Elazar said: Like that of which we have learned: Originally [the walls of the Court of the Women] were smooth, but [later the Court] was surrounded with a gallery, and it was enacted that the women should sit above and the men below.

 

The mishnah stated that at the end of the first day of Sukkot they made a "great enactment." While the original meaning of this "great enactment" may have been simply a reference to the preparations for the Simchat Bet Hashoevah itself, the Talmud takes this in a different direction, interpreting that this "enactment" was the separation of the sexes during the celebrations. This is the source for the idea of a mehitzah (a separation) between the sexes in religious areas such as the synagogue. According to the Talmud, they actually built the balcony around the Women’s Section (Ezrat Nashim) for this very reason. I should note that other readings of this passage portray the actual separation as the "enactment." The balcony was built for other reasons.

 

תנו רבנן: בראשונה היו נשים מבפנים ואנשים מבחוץ, והיו באים לידי קלות ראש, התקינו שיהו נשים יושבות מבחוץ ואנשים מבפנים. ועדיין היו באין לידי קלות ראש. התקינו שיהו נשים יושבות מלמעלה ואנשים מלמטה.

 

Our rabbis have taught: Originally the women used to sit within [the Court of the Women] while the men were outside, but this would cause levity, it was instituted that the women should sit outside and the men inside. But they would still come to levity. It was instituted that the women should sit above and the men below.

 

This baraita presents various manifestations of where the men and women would sit either in or outside the Ezrat Nashim, the Women’s Court, in the Temple. I should note that this baraita seems to be more ideology than actual history. The point seems to be that according to the rabbis the best place to prevent the mingling of the sexes is for the women to be in the balcony.

 

היכי עביד הכי? והכתיב +דברי הימים א כח+ הכל בכתב מיד ה’ עלי השכיל!

אמר רב: קרא אשכחו ודרוש, +זכריה יב+ וספדה הארץ משפחות משפחות לבד משפחת בית דוד לבד ונשיהם לבד. אמרו: והלא דברים קל וחומר. ומה לעתיד לבא – שעוסקין בהספד ואין יצר הרע שולט בהם – אמרה תורה אנשים לבד ונשים לבד, עכשיו שעסוקין בשמחה ויצר הרע שולט בהם – על אחת כמה וכמה.

 

 

But how could they do so?

Is it not written, "All this [do I give you] in writing as the Lord has made me wise by His hand upon me?" (I Chronicles 28:19).

Rav said: They found a verse and expounded it: "And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart" (Zechariah 12:12). They said: Is there not an a fortiori (kal vehomer) argument? If in the future when they will be engaged in mourning and the evil inclination will have no power over them, the Torah nevertheless says, men separately and women separately, how much more so now when they are engaged in rejoicing and the evil inclination has sway over them.

 

The Talmud questions what gave them the right to add on to the Temple’s physical structure. There is a verse in Chronicles according to which all of the Temple’s architecture was given to Solomon by his father David, and that it shouldn’t be changed. So how could they add the balcony?

Rav finds a verse according to which in the time to come (the end of times) when they come to mourn the great destruction, men and women will sit separately. If during this time, when people are mourning and when the evil inclination has been destroyed (we will read more about this in the coming passages), they still need to sit separately, all the more so during the Simchat Bet Hashoevah when they are celebrating.