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<DIV>In a message dated 10/7/2007 12:40:04 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
gershon.dubin@juno.com writes:</DIV>
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style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">From: <A
title=mailto:T613K@aol.com
href="mailto:T613K@aol.com">T613K@aol.com</A><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><<<Mechitza is only a
"minhag"?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In
<st1:place>Europe</st1:place> they didn't have mechitzos in<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>shul?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Men and women sat
together?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Or they sat separately
but with no <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>physical
<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">separation?>>></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">>>Much more likely that
women never even showed up in shul....<<</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><BR>Gershon<BR><A
title=mailto:gershon.dubin@juno.com
href="mailto:gershon.dubin@juno.com">gershon.dubin@juno.com</A><BR></P></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>>>>>></DIV>
<DIV>If so, then you can hardly call mechitzos a "new minhag" as if we have
become so much more fanatic and farfrumt than we were in the good old
days in der alter heim. Building shuls with mechitzos so as to accomodate
female worshippers seems, if anything, pretty liberal and relaxed compared to
the option of not letting them in the building.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><STRONG></STRONG><BR><B>--Toby
Katz<BR>=============</B></FONT></DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">See what's new at <A title="http://www.aol.com?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001170" href="http://www.aol.com?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001170" target="_blank">AOL.com</A> and <A title="http://www.aol.com/mksplash.adp?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001169" href="http://www.aol.com/mksplash.adp?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001169" target="_blank">Make AOL Your Homepage</A>.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>