“I have the highest praise for the series you published called Diverging. ‘Meira’ is honest, articulate, clear, and amazingly beautiful”
I read Bashie Lisker’s essay, “Takeover,” with dismay. She says at the end of her essay, “We’re staging a hostile takeover” to reclaim the women’s section. But in fact, the real takeover was carried out by the men when they entered the ezras nashim and started using it as an additional space where men could daven.
I’ve had that experience, too, though not in my own shul. Years ago, we’d driven quite far to attend a bris. We arrived in time for Shacharis, and I went inside, figuring I’d catch davening in the women’s section. When I got there — yes, you guessed it — it was full of men learning. None of them moved when I walked in, and I wasn’t the only woman there.
When men use the women’s section — either to learn or to daven in a quieter space, as was Bashie’s experience — they seem to be saying that whatever they’re doing there is more important than the actual purpose of that room: the tefillos of women.
It’s understandable — women don’t have to daven with a minyan, and women don’t have a chiyuv in limud haTorah.
Create a free account to keep reading.
