The subject of women in Judaism, women's place in the synagogue, women's prayer, women's anything frankly in religion is a hot topic - and it's not cooling off. We're certainly making progress, but sometimes that progress is painfully slow. I recently wrote about my thoughts that arose after my son's school performance, making me miss the experience of truly engaging with prayer in a community setting. This past weekend our neighbors celebrated their son turning 13 and his Bar Mitzvah . They had the Shabbat morning service at the Orthodox synagogue down the street from our house. That's the synagogue where we don't go - that's a story for another time. They are our friends, the mom does not come from a religious background, so we made sure to get up and get there on time to celebrate with them. I sat in the women's section - which also happens to be the back - of the synagogue. There is a mechitza , a separation between the men and women wh...