During the High Holy Days season especially I remember the fussing about women, that is, whether women should be allowed in synagogue. Of course they're allowed, as long as they sit in back or upstairs, out of sight, out of mind. That's how it used to be, and then, one House after another began to bend the tradition and change the rules.

Women were invited to join the men, side by side. That's how it is in most synagogues these days, except Orthodox.

There they are - women! Oh my gawd!

I remember the revolt! All this goes back years, but this was quite a revolution. Some traditionalists quit the synagogue even at the mention of women.

In shul!

Well, come on, we allow women into our homes, don't we? Why not shul? I've even got two of these running around my house. One of them is my daughter and the other one keeps saying she's my wife. I even see these people, women, shopping and driving cars. Some are even allowed to vote, just like men.

I'll even go so far as to say that while we, men, run the world, women run the homes - and gaze around just to see the great job we've done with the world.

Then, of course, there's that line in our morning devotions about thanking upstairs for "not making us a woman." Some women take offense at this. They think it's a putdown. I don't. I think it's a compliment. No man wants to go through childbirth. We don't have the guts for this.

Only women are so heroic.

Do women, in our religion, really take a back seat? Check out our Torah.

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were all at the mercy of their wives.

King David - ask him about Bathsheba. Ask him who was boss. Only because of her insistence and intervention did Solomon ascend the throne.

Also, what man can be trusted to raise the children? This also takes the kind of strength no man can muster.

I've sat in shul with my wife, and daughter, and son, of course, and these two women weren't really much trouble. They weren't rowdy. Strangely - and this is very strange - my wife is smarter than I am. I know - incredible, but true. My daughter is smarter than I am. Imagine, a woman!

Let me say this in defense of the traditionalists. We're going back years now, back to Cincinnati, where, I believe, this revolt originated. Used to be, that I attended a special synagogue that was borderline between Conservative and Orthodox. A hundred meetings, near violent, took place as to whether women - oh my gawd! - should be allowed to sit with the men.

Then one day it happened. For me, raised mostly Orthodox back in Montreal, this came as a shock. I remember encountering this phenomenon on Yom Kippur.

There I am, deep in prayer, and suddenly, what is this - perfume? Yes, it's perfume along with people that we generally find only around the house.

Women - here in our secret hideaway! Women - in our Boys Only Club! We must admit this: They can indeed be quite a distraction, this new species.

I mean, how can you concentrate on God when His finest creation is sitting right next to you?

Jack Engelhard is the author of the best-selling novel "Indecent Proposal," which was turned into a Paramount motion picture. His works can be reviewed at www.jackengelhard.com.