Gender in Jewish Tradition

(27) And God created man in His own image, in the image of God [He] created him; male and female [He] created them.

(1) This is the record of Adam line.—When God created Adam, making it in the Divine image (2) male and female [God] created them. And when they were created, [God] blessed them and called them Adam.—

(18) And Adonai Elohim said: ‘It is not good that Ha-Adam should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.’ (21) And Adonai Elohim caused a deep sleep to fall upon Ha-Adam, and he slept; and [God] took one of his ribs, and closed up the place with flesh instead thereof. (22) And Adonai Elohim fashioned the rib which [God] had taken from Ha-Adam into a woman, and brought her to Ha-Adam. (24) Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be one flesh.

R. Yirmiyah ben Elazar said, when Hashem created Adam HaRishon [the first human], he was created androgynos [אנדרוגינוס]; thus is it written, "male and female did [God] create them." R. Shmuel bar Nachman said, when the Holy Blessed One created Adam HaRishon, [God] created it with two faces, one on each side, and God split it along the middle, a back here and a back there. [The other rabbis] challenged him: but it is written, "And [God] took one of its ribs!" [R. Nachman] said to them: "mitzalotav doesn't mean rib, it means one of its sides..."

Rabbi Simeon was journeying to Tiberias, and there were with him, Rabbi Jose, Rabbi Jehuda, and Rabbi Hiya. While on the way, they saw Rabbi Pinchus coming to meet them. After exchanging greetings, they all sat down under a great shady tree by a hillside.

Then Rabbi Simeon said: "It is written, 'and he went on his journeys from the south to Bethel unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Hai' (Gen. 13:3). It says, 'He went on his journeys' instead of 'his journey.' Why is that? There is a reference not only to his own journeying, but also that of the Schekina, who always went with Abraham, and therefore we learn that every person needs to be male and female at all times, for the sake of his faith, he ought not to think or imagine that the Schekina forsakes him in any way.

See, it has been said, a man ought always to cleave to his wife that the Schekina may always be with him, yet it is possible to go alone on a journey and the Schekina will still be with him. And when doing so he ought to direct his prayer to the Holy One that this may be, and in this way the male and female will always be associated in union with oneself.

(Translation by Abby Stein)

R. Ammi stated: Abraham and Sarah were originally tumtumin; for it is said, (Isaiah 51:1) "Look unto to the rock whence you were hewn and to the hole of the pit whence you were dug," and this is followed by the text, Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bore you.

R. Nahman stated in the name of Rabbah b. Abbuha: Our mother Sarah was an aylonit; for it is said, And Sarai was barren; she had no child, she had not even a womb.

וירדו בדגת הים, this line stresses that all the creatures on earth had only been created in order to be of use to man. Due to their superior intelligence, man is to exercise dominion over all of these creatures. Man is reminded who it was Who created all these living creatures other than himself. As to the plural mode of the word וירדו, [which seems out of place when אדם is understood as a reference to man the species, Ed.] this mode was chosen because the term אדם includes the male and the female of the species, as we know from the formula of God’s blessing in which God is reported as blessing אותם, “them,” although at the time only a single human body had been created. (verse 28) The very term וירדו -as opposed to such terms as וימשול or וימלוך which are far more common terms to express authority, reign or rule, - indicates that this “dominion” is more of a potential kind than an actual one, such as a king ruling over his subjects.
Besides, whereas rulers generally exercise control only over people who are their contemporaries, and cannot extend their authority automatically over subsequent generations of their subjects, the root רדה, implies superiority based on natural law by one species over another. Man is superior to the animals both by reason of his intelligence and by reason of the means at his disposal to establish physical superiority over them. Eventually, by having rescued the animals from extinction during the deluge, man even acquired the right to use the animals as food. Prior to the deluge the “dominion” mentioned here was evident primarily in man using the animals as beasts of burden, etc. The various kinds of birds were used by man to enjoy its eggs, its feathers, etc. At any rate, the right accorded to man to exercise control over the animal kingdom was not fully implemented until after the deluge.