[Avodah] mechitza [was: heter mechira produce]

[David Riceman]

T613K at aol.com wrote:
> Mechitza is only a "minhag"?  In Europe they didn't have mechitzos in 
> shul?  Men and women sat together?  Or they sat separately but with no 
> physical separation?
As far as I know the norm throughout Europe was balconies (or women not 
going to shul).  In the 1950s in the US various poskim tried to find 
sources for mehitza, but it's not explicitly discussed, as far as I 
know, in Hazal, Rishonim, or early modern poskim.  My personal 
conclusion is that it's a universal minhag.  I'd be surprised if we 
hadn't already hashed this out thoroughly at least once, but I don't 
recall having done so.

David Riceman