[Avodah] mechitza

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Oct 07, 2007 at 09:00:57PM +0000, kennethgmiller at juno.com wrote:
: I've heard this many times. But it only makes sense to me 99% of the
: time. How recent is it that women come to shul for Parshas Zachor and
: Megillas Esther and Tekias Shofar? ...

All three are recent.

Until the 19th cent, it was assumed that since women aren't mechuyavos
in meshiyas Amaleiq, they weren't mechuyavos in Parashas Zachor either.
See Seifer haChinuch #603, in contrast to the Minchas Chinukh (sham).
The earliest clear pesaq lemaaseh requiring women to attend Zachor is
shu"t Binyan Tziyon by R' Yaaqov Etlinger, besheim R' Nathan Adler.
Similarly Maharal Diskin holds that since a woman is mechuyeves to even
leave her chupah for a milchemes mitzvah, she IS mechuyeves in milchemes
Amaleiq and therefore Parashas Zachor as well.

Sepharadi women still don't.

Shofar and qeri'as Megillah were typically held separately for women.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
micha at aishdas.org        I awoke and found that life was duty.
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