QUESTION

Is there any halakhic issue with reconfiguring a synagogue’s davening space so that part of what was previously the men’s section is now designated as the women’s section, while the former women’s section is no longer regularly used for davening? Alternatively, may the men’s and women’s sections be treated as flexible spaces, with their respective sizes adjusted according to immediate need?

For context, the former women’s section was always explicitly designated as a multi-purpose space rather than exclusively as a place for davening.

ANSWER

This is an issue that has come up in the poskim, dating back at least a hundred years or more. Some poskim rule that the kedushah of a beit kenesset is based on kedushat haMikdash—it is a mikdash me’at (see Chayei Adam 17:6)—and, as such, the kedushah of the ezrat Yisrael, which in the Beit HaMikdash had kedushat haMikdash itself, is greater than that of the ezrat nashim, which had only kedushat Har HaBayit. According to this view, one may not convert part of the men’s section into a women’s section because of the principle of ma’alin bakodesh ve-ein moridin—we ascend in matters of sanctity and do not descend (Megillah 26a; Divrei Chaim, [citation]).

Others disagree. They argue that the kedushah of a beit kenesset is based either on its status as a tashmish mitzvah—serving the mitzvah of prayer, which applies to both men and women—or on the fact that devarim shebikdushah are recited there. The latter is true of our ezrat nashim as well, since women participate in and are part of the tzibbur that responds to devarim shebikdushah (Sho’el U-Meshiv, Mahadura Kama, II:22, Arukh HaShulchan Orach Chaim 154:7).

I think we have an obligation to pasken like these latter opinions. So, yes, you can use part of the men’s section for the women’s section or adjust the respective spaces as needed.