While it is true that the Temple had a Court of Women, it is not true that the sexes were completely segregated. Men were allowed in that Court. In fact, the Sanhedrin met in that Court! Men mostly gathered in the Court of Israel, where the altar and most Temple appurtenances were. . According to RASHI, women were never allowed into the Court Of Israel. However, according to RAMBAM and the Tosafot (a group of about a thousand rabbis, the grandsons of RASHI and their students), women DID enter the Court of Israel when bringing a sacrifice. There were eight days a year when this was not true. The Talmud relates that King Solomon made a "great innovation". During the Sukkot holiday, every night featured a great celebration of singing dancing, and even juggling. The celebration was connected with the "Water Libation". Whereas nearly all sacrifices were associated with a libation of wine, during Sukkot, water would be drawn from the nearby Gihon spring, and poured upon the alter. This Is not mentioned in the Torah except by way of a hint, but was understood to be a tradition going back to Moses. It was a sort of symbolic prayer, for a blessed rainy season. (Eretz Yisrael, like other Mediterranean lands, has two distinct seasons; Rainy and Dry). The celebration took place in the Court of Women. Solomon feared that if singing and dancing through the night were to take place with men and women together, it would likely lead to debauchery; a common feature in pagan Temples. So a balcony was constructed for the women, so they could see and enjoy the spectacle. But it is important to note that this balcony only existed for eight days a year.The Talmud mentions that some rabbis actually enforced this practice in synagogues, as a way of insuring proper concentration and decorum during worship. The wording of the Talmudic passage indicates that this practice was, however, not common. We are unable to determine if the ancient synagogues which have been found in Israel had separate women's sections of not. Mosques have not only separate seating, but also partitions that are way over the worshippers' heads. Churches in Southern Europe had women's balconies until the tenth century. (My friend, Msgr Tutone, once told me "not in Ireland! The women would not have stood for it!") It is likely that the same situation existed in medieval synagogues. But no rabbi mentions this, until the thirteenth century. Rabbi Mordecai ben Hillel (known as the Mordecai), writes that this is a universal practice, but by no means a halachic requirement. It is merely a symbol of modesty. The issue goes again unmentioned until the eighteenth century PRI MEGADIM, who likewise declares it an symbol of modesty, with no halachic significance.This all changed in 1840. The Reform Temple in Albany, New York, suffered major damage from a fire. A local Church allowed the congregation to use its sanctuary for Friday night services. The people loved the mixed seating, and it was soon adopted by Reform congregations all over America. This was slow to be accepted elsewhere; it flew too much in the face of tradition. (I have been in two European Reform synagogues, in France in 1965, and Hungary in 1989.The former had a women's balcony. The latter had separate seating, albeit without a mechitzah (partition)). When the Conservative movement began in about 1880, their stance was that separate seating was good and proper, but mixed seating would be allowed on a temporary basis, until the people would be "won back to tradition". In fact, the main sanctuary at JTS, the Conservative seminary, had separate seating, WITH a mechitzah, until the 1980s, when feminism and egalitarianism saw this as an affront to women. But even before this, the public perception was that the main difference between Orthodoxy and Conservatism ,was the question of mixed seating. Orthodox leaders, fearing a new sect in Judaism, were adamant. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein declared mixed seating a Biblical prohibition, and separate seating without a mechitzah a rabbinic prohibition. Any rabbi serving in such a congregation was not "kosher", and all his actions were to be seen as null and void; even if he were personally fully Orthodox. Rabbi J.B., Soloveichik, the head of Orthodoxy's left wing (his wife did not cover her hair, and he would practically force guests in his home to partake of ordinary, unsupervised cheese), issued a declaration that if one heard the shofar on Rosh HaShanah in a mixed seating situation, one has not heard the shofar. If one's options are to hear it in a Conservative synagogue or not hear it, better to not hear it. Neither of these views had any halachic basis (some were offered, but were flimsy and easily refuted). Others argued that the silence on the subject in our sources was due it it being too obvious to mention.Others saw this argument as ridiculous. But these harsh actions were seen by there rabbis as necessary in order to separate "the men from the boys"; Traditional Judaism needed to be saved from an upstart, and potentially dangerous sect. Many Orthodox synagogues had been without mechitzahs as well. By 1970, this had all but disappeared. Until 1985, when the Conservative movement ordained women rabbis, the RCA rabbinic placement service was placing members in Conservative congregations that were unable to get a Conservative rabbi (who get much higher salaries). This stopped, and rabbis who had been placed in these congregations were ordered to leave their positions, or face sanctions. Conservatism continued their Leftward path, until today, in most places, it differs from Reform in only a few details. In 1991, I needed to come to the States for a week, to visit my Mother before her death. I spent Shabbat with the local Conservative rabbi, a man as pious and careful about halachah as any Orthodox rabbi I know,. We had been friends since 1966. I asked him if he would eat in the home of the average Conservative rabbi. He answered "Five years ago, yes. Today, no". Had Rabbis Feinstein and Soloveichik foreseen this direction, and minimized the damage by aggressively persecuting anyone connected with Conservatism? Or had they brought the current rift about, by pushing away a third of American Jewry? This is a question often heard whispered in rabbinic circles. G-d only knows. However, one thing is certain. Suddenly, thousands of people who had converted in completely halachic ceremonies, were now driven out of the Jewish people. This will ultimately be judged by the True Judge.
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