Berakhot 100

7:
In his great halakhic code Mishneh Torah Rambam lists five absolute pre-requisites for reciting the Amidah, the absence of which would prevent the worshippers from performing their duty: being physically clean, being decently dressed, being in a physically clean environment, having no distracting physical considerations, and concentration [Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Tefillah 4:1]. We have already considered the first four of these, and we must now consider the last one.

5. This last consideration, is, as we have already mentioned, the need for concentration. Rambam's interpretation of this consideration is extremely liberal in its scope:

Later poskim [decisors] did not categorize the above statements as liberal in their scope but as most restricting. Rabbi Yosef Karo in his Shulĥan Arukh [Oraĥ Ĥayyim 98] not only writes in sentiments most akin to the those of Rambam but even adds to them in the first paragraph of the section. But then in the second paragraph he admits:

That is a comment from one of the greatest of the Kabbalists of Safed in 16th century Eretz-Israel – a man of whom it is claimed that an angel was perched on his shoulder when he composed the Shulĥan Arukh! So what can we say, except to quote Rabbi Ze'ira in the Gemara [Shabbat 112b]:

To be continued.

Leif Knutsen sends the following:

The requirement that we place ourselves in an elevated state of mind for the Amidah is really an argument in favor of separating men and women, isn't it? I recently wrote to a friend of mine: Our attraction to woman is purely reflexive and natural, but it flows from our most primitive instincts. Prayer is our effort to bring ourselves to the highest level of spirituality – one could easily make the argument that those two levels are so far apart that there is no way we can bridge them in a reasonable period of time. (I do not mean to imply that the "separation" means putting women in the back of the synagogue behind a wall or a high divider – only that men and women might want to sit separately, or that – as it is practiced in the Great Synagogue in Stockholm – there are three sections: for men, women and mixed seating). Am I way off base here?

I respond:

See what rabbis Zeira and Karo wrote above. If there was a chance that by doing what Leif suggests we could reach even a minimally acceptable level of concentration (such as described by Rambam) there might be much to commend it. As it is, it could be interpreted at best as futile and at worst as overweening pride – which is certainly not Leif's intention! If a man is capable of maintaining sufficient concentration of mind to discuss with acumen his bank account with an attractive teller, then the atmosphere of a synagogue should not make it more difficult for him to do so when at prayer. I have not noticed superior levels of concentration at orthodox synagogues where separation of the sexes is the social norm. Au contraire…