The Mishnah on the Women’s Balcony
At the conclusion of the first festival day of Sukkot, they [the people] descended to the Women’s Court, and they would make there a great preparation.1 There were golden candelabras there with four golden bowls at the top of each, and four ladders to each, and four youths from the young priests with jars of oil holding 120 log, which they poured into the bowls.
Notes
[Generally understood as a reference to the preparation of balconies for women mentioned in t. Sukkah 4:1. Hebrew tikkun, “preparation,” can also mean “correction” or “enactment.” The Babylonian Talmud (b. Sukkah 51b) understands tikkun here as the decision to separate the women from the men. Although this mishnah suggests that some preparation took place on an annual basis, m. Middot 2:5 describes the women’s balcony as a permanent structure.—Ed.]
Credits
m. Sukkah 5:2, adapted from Mishnah Yomit, trans. Joshua Kulp, www.sefaria.org. Originally from https://learn.conservativeyeshiva.org. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) License.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
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The Herodian Temple complex was divided into several areas with ever-greater restrictions on access. The outermost area was open to both Jews and non-Jews. Beyond that was an enclosed area called the Women’s Court. This area was not restricted to women but rather demarcated the point beyond which women were forbidden to enter. Rabbinic sources state that because of improprieties resulting from the mingling of men and women during the festivities that accompanied the water libation ceremony, balconies were eventually built, where the women would sit and observe the celebration. See also the parallel text in the Tosefta.
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