Igros Moshe: Inside the Teshuvos
Sep 16, 2026 · 28 min · 9 segments
Send us Fan Mail In a series of six teshuvos, Rav Moshe traces the source of the mechitza requirement and clarifies how large a mechitza must be.
The first shuvah we're going to do was written on December 26, 1945.
It was from a rabbi, Dr. Dovid or David Stern, who was a principal in Torah at the time.
There is a shayalah, a very, very simple shayalah.
Is a mechitzah required in shul? If so, what is the size requirement? To be clear, we are not directly discussing mixed seating.
We're talking about, let's assume they're sitting separate, but is there a requirement to have a mechitza to separate the men and women? It's important to have some historical context here.
It was not that simple in the 1940s.
I mean, that debate was far from settled.
The fight was really only beginning and really culminating in the 50s where there was actual litigation that ultimately kind of paved the way for what we now know, which is this separation where obviously the orthodox shul has a mechitza and if you don't have one, you're by definition non-orthodox shul.
Yeah.
As Ramesh himself alludes in the Shuvah, he said people have begun to be pirates together.
Yeah.
Listen, this was immediately post-war and more and more immigrants are coming to the United States and creating their kehillahs.
We have to explain the halach, to discuss what's required.
It says that the men and women would all come to the Simchas Beis HaSheva, and they put the woman on the inside, I guess, closer to the ceremony, and the men on the outside.
So the men were peering through into the woman's section to see the events.
And sure enough, it led to kalos resh, it led to frivolity between the genders.
So they said, you know what, let's flip around.
The first shuvah we're going to do was written on December 26, 1945.
It was from a rabbi, Dr. Dovid or David Stern, who was a principal in Torah at the time.
There is a shayalah, a very, very simple shayalah.
Is a mechitzah required in shul? If so, what is the size requirement? To be clear, we are not directly discussing mixed seating.
We're talking about, let's assume they're sitting separate, but is there a requirement to have a mechitza to separate the men and women? It's important to have some historical context here.
It was not that simple in the 1940s.
I mean, that debate was far from settled.
The fight was really only beginning and really culminating in the 50s where there was actual litigation that ultimately kind of paved the way for what we now know, which is this separation where obviously the orthodox shul has a mechitza and if you don't have one, you're by definition non-orthodox shul.
Yeah.
As Ramesh himself alludes in the Shuvah, he said people have begun to be pirates together.
Yeah.
Listen, this was immediately post-war and more and more immigrants are coming to the United States and creating their kehillahs.
We have to explain the halach, to discuss what's required.
It says that the men and women would all come to the Simchas Beis HaSheva, and they put the woman on the inside, I guess, closer to the ceremony, and the men on the outside.
So the men were peering through into the woman's section to see the events.
And sure enough, it led to kalos resh, it led to frivolity between the genders.
So they said, you know what, let's flip around.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
