People ask me whether there is any connection between haddarat nashim (a very common concept in Israel in recent years, mostly among the Orthodox), and the biblical ve-hadarta pne zaqen, “show respect to the elderly” (Leviticus 19:32), implying that secluding women is out of respect, “to protect them.”
In spite of the similarity of the sounds (of the letters), there is no semantic connection; haddarah (with dagesh in dalet) “exclusion” is from n-d-r, neder, “vow”; hiddir is “forbid by a vow, put a person under a vow, keep away, cut off, keep distance,” whereas hadarah (with no dagesh) “reverence” is from h-d-r (as in nehdar “great, majestic”) and closely related to a-d-r, addir ne’dar “splendid, mighty, great.”
*As with separating women to the back of the bus, behind a screen, or even having them use a separate bus, for modesty or religious reasons, similar to Ezrat Nashim in Orthodox synagogues.
Yona Sabar is a professor of Hebrew and Aramaic in the department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures at UCLA.