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Core Lesson/Group Activity Hineini Curriculum Resource Guide Core Lesson/Group Activity 4. Gender in the Talmud Description: This text study lesson plan presents the six different gender categories described in Talmudic literature and asks students to explore how the rabbinic concepts of gender compare to contemporary understandings. You may want to review “Guidelines for Educators” and “Seven Jewish Values” in the Educator Preparation section and then establish ground rules with your class for this discussion. It also can be helpful to precede this lesson with Steps 1 through 7 of the lesson plan immediately preceding this one, “Gender and Identity in Jewish Tradition,” to help students understand the relationship between biological sex, gender, and identity. Time: 45 minutes Recommended Age Range: grades 10–12 Objectives: n To introduce students to classical Jewish texts that illustrate that Talmudic rabbis recognized that there are more gender categories than just “masculine” and “feminine.” n To compare Talmudic treatment of non-traditionally gendered people to contemporary attitudes towards intersex and transgender people. Materials: n “Terms for Gender Diversity” handout (one per student) n “Gender Text Study” handout (one per student) Instructions: 1. Explain to students that the rabbis of the Talmud were concerned with discussing how the laws in the Torah applied to different members of the community. Jewish law (halakhah) is often concerned with the gender of a Jew in determining what mitzvot (commandments) a person is obligated to observe and who is able to perform certain ritual tasks for others. 2. Hand out the “Terms for Gender Diversity” reference sheet. Ask students to look over the terms and then review them as a class. Be sure to give students a chance to ask questions. 3. Have students break into groups of three or four and hand out the text study sheets. Give students 20 minutes in groups to read the texts and respond to questions a, b, and c. (If your students are not familiar with text study you can examine the texts together as a group.) Be sure to define any terms in the texts that students may not be familiar with. 4. After the groups have had time to study the texts separately, bring the groups together and ask them to share some responses to questions a, b, and c. 5. Then, as one large group, examine question “D.” You can suggest to students that one remarkable thing about these texts is that the rabbis clearly accepted these non-traditionally gendered people as they were and as part of the community. The task for the rabbis was how to understand how their differences affected their status in the Jewish legal system. page | 119 This lesson plan is hosted at www.on1foot.org, a project of American Jewish World Service Hineini Curriculum Resource Guide Guiding Questions for “Gender Text Study” Handout: To discuss in small groups: a. Given that Judaism links religious obligation and the performance of mitzvot to gender, how does Jewish law discuss and treat people who fit into one of the categories that is not clearly male or female? b. How do the rabbis of the Talmud and later Jewish legal texts understand gender? What kind of system are they using for categorizing gender? For example, is it a hierarchy, a four gender system, or something else? How do power and privilege play into this dynamic? c. How is their system similar to or different from our understanding of gender today? With respect to Jewish community? More generally? To discuss as a large group: d. What can we, as contemporary Jews, learn from how the sages treated people who were not clearly categorized as either male (zachar) or female (nekevah)? page | 120 This lesson plan is hosted at www.on1foot.org, a project of American Jewish World Service Hineini Curriculum Resource Guide Terms for Gender Diversity In Classical Jewish Texts xkf – Zachar: This term is derived from the Hebrew word for a pointy sword and refers to a phallus. It is usually translated as “male” in English. dawp – Nekevah: This term is derived from the Hebrew word for a crevice and probably refers to the vaginal opening. It is usually translated as “female” in English. qepibexcp` – Androgynos: A person who has both “male” and “female” sexual characteristics. 149 references in Mishna and Talmud; 350 in classical Midrash and Jewish law codes. mehneh – Tumtum: A person whose sexual characteristics are indeterminate or obscured. 181 references in Mishna and Talmud; 335 in classical Midrash and Jewish law codes. zipeli` – Aylonit: A person who is identified as “female” at birth but develops “male” characteristics at puberty and is infertile. 80 references in Mishna and Talmud; 40 in classical Midrash and Jewish law codes. qixq – Saris: A person who is identified as “male” at birth but develops “female” characteristics at puberty and/or is lacking a penis. A person can be “naturally” a saris (referred to as a “saris chamah”) or can become one through human intervention (“saris adam”). 156 references in Mishna and Talmud; 379 in classical Midrash and Jewish law codes. In Contemporary Discourse Transgender: An umbrella term that can encompass anyone who doesn’t identify with the gender assigned at birth. This includes people who take medical steps to modify their appearance and those who do not. Some transmen and transwomen identify completely with their preferred gender (male or female), while other transpeople do not. They identify instead with an alternate “non–binary” gender identity that sits on a continuum between 100% male and 100% female. There are some Jewish transpeople who have adopted the terms androgynos or tumtum as a way to communicate that they are not identifying as exclusively male or female. Transexual: A person who feels that his or her gender identity does not match his or her biological sex. Some transexuals, though not all, have sex reassignment surgery and/or take hormones to make their bodies look more male or female. Intersex: Approximately 1 in 2,000 people who are born with a combination of “male” and “female” physical traits such as chromosomes, genitalia, and secondary sex characteristics. Gender Nonconforming: Anyone who doesn’t “match” the expected roles and behaviors of the gender they were assigned at birth. page | 121 This lesson plan is hosted at www.on1foot.org, a project of American Jewish World Service Hineini Curriculum Resource Guide Gender Text Study Women, slaves, and minors are exempt from sitting in a sukkah. A person without gender and an androgynous person are obligated to sit in the sukkah because their status is doubtful. One who is half slave and half free is also obligated. — SHULCHAN ARUCH, ORACH CHAYYIM 640:1 All are obligated for reading of the Scroll of Esther [on Purim]: Priests, Levites, converts, freed slaves, disqualified priests, mamzarim, a born saris, a saris by human action, those with damaged testicles, those lacking testicles — all of them are obligated. And all of them have the power to fulfill the obligation of the community [if they read the Scroll of Esther to the community as a whole]. A tumtum and an androgynos are obligated [to read the Scroll of Esther], but they do not have the power to fulfill the obligation for the community as a whole. The androgynos has the power to fulfill the obligation for his own kind [another androgynos] and does not have the power for one who is not his own kind. A tumtum does not have the power to fulfill the obligation for others, whether they are of his own kind or not of his own kind. Women, slaves, and minors are exempt. Thus they do not have the power to fulfill the obligation of the community. —TOSEFTA MEGILAH CHAPTER 2 The androgynos is in some things like to men and in some things like to women, and in some things like both to men and to women, and in some things like neither to men nor to women. —MISHNAH SEDER ZERAIM, TRACTATE BIKURIM CHAPTER 4:1 page | 122 This lesson plan is hosted at www.on1foot.org, a project of American Jewish World Service Hineini Curriculum Resource Guide How is he like both to men and to women? For smiting him or cursing him guilt is incurred as for smiting or for cursing men and women; if a man slew him in error he is liable to exile, and if wantonly he is put to death like as for other men and women; his mother must bring an offering because of him like as at the birth of both men and women; and he may inherit any inheritance like both men and women. —MISHNAH SEDER ZERAIM, TRACTATE BIKURIM CHAPTER 4:4 How is he like neither to men nor to women? Heave-offering need not be burnt because of uncleanness of his issue nor is penalty incurred through his entering the Temple while he is unclean, unlike both men and women; he cannot be sold as a Hebrew bondservant, unlike both men and women; and his Valuation cannot be vowed, unlike both men and women. And if a man said, ‘May I be a Nazirite if this is neither a man nor a woman!’ he must be a Nazirite. R. Jose says: An androgynos is a creature by itself, and the Sages could not decide about whether it was man or woman. But it is not so with one of doubtful sex (tumtum), since such a one is at times a man and at times a woman.” —MISHNAH SEDER ZERAIM, TRACTATE BIKURIM CHAPTER 4:5 Guiding Questions: a. Given that Judaism links religious obligation and the performance of mitzvot to gender, how does Jewish law discuss and treat people who fit into one of the categories that is not clearly male or female? b.
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