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Source: Jewish Learning
The Eight Genders in the Talmud
Judaism has recognized nonbinary persons for millennia.
By Rachel Scheinerman
Thought nonbinary gender was a modern concept? Think again. The ancient Jewish understanding of gender was far more nuanced than many assume.
The Eight Genders in the Talmud
Judaism has recognized nonbinary persons for millennia.
By Rachel Scheinerman
Thought nonbinary gender was a modern concept? Think again. The ancient Jewish understanding of gender was far more nuanced than many assume.
The Talmud, a huge and authoritative compendium of Jewish legal traditions, contains in fact no less than eight gender designations including:
1. Zachar, male.2. Nekevah, female.3. Androgynos, having both male and female characteristics.4. Tumtum, lacking sexual characteristics.5. Aylonit hamah, identified female at birth but later naturally developing male characteristics.6. Aylonit adam, identified female at birth but later developing male characteristics through human intervention.7. Saris hamah, identified male at birth but later naturally developing female characteristics.8. Saris adam, identified male at birth and later developing female characteristics through human intervention.
In fact, not only did the rabbis recognize six genders that were neither male nor female, they had a tradition that the first human being was both. Versions of this midrash are found throughout rabbinic literature, including in the Talmud:
For the rabbis, the androgynos wasn't just a thing of the mythic past. The androgynos was in fact a recognized gender category in their present — though not with two heads, only both kinds of sex organs. The term appears no less than 32 times in the Mishnah and 283 times in the Talmud. Most of these citations are not variations on this myth, but rather discussions that consider how Jewish law (halakhah) applies to one who has both male and female sexual characteristics.
Please go to Jewish Learning to continue reading.
Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar also said: Adam was first created with two faces (one male and the other female). As it is stated: "You have formed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me." (Psalms 139:5)Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar imagines that the first human was created both male and female — with two faces. Later, this original human being was separated and became two distinct people, Adam and Eve. According to this midrash then, the first human being was, to use contemporary parlance, nonbinary. Genesis Rabbah 8:1 offers a slightly different version of Rabbi Yirmeya's teaching:
Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar: In the hour when the Holy One created the first human, He created him as an androgynos (one having both male and female sexual characteristics), as it is said, "male and female He created them." (Genesis 1:27)In this version of the teaching, Rabbi Yirmeya is not focusing on the first human's face (or, rather, faces) but on their sex organs — they have both. The midrash imagines this original human looked something like a man and woman conjoined at the back so that one side has a women's face and a woman's sex organs and the other side has a man's face and sex organs. Then God split this original person in half, creating the first man and woman. Ancient history buffs will recognize this image as similar to the character Aristophanes' description of the first humans as both male and female, eventually sundered to create lone males and females forever madly seeking one another for the purposes of reuniting to experience that primordial state. (Plato, Symposium, 189ff)
Said Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani: In the hour when the Holy One created the first human, He created for him a double face, and sawed him and made him backs, a back here and a back there, as it is said, "Behind and before, You formed me" (Psalms 139:5).
For the rabbis, the androgynos wasn't just a thing of the mythic past. The androgynos was in fact a recognized gender category in their present — though not with two heads, only both kinds of sex organs. The term appears no less than 32 times in the Mishnah and 283 times in the Talmud. Most of these citations are not variations on this myth, but rather discussions that consider how Jewish law (halakhah) applies to one who has both male and female sexual characteristics.
Please go to Jewish Learning to continue reading.
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