Torah Trans-cestors : HaIvrim

R’ Yirmiyah ben Elazar said: In the hour when the Holy One created the first human, [g-d] created an androginos - as it is said, “male and female [g-d] created them” (Genesis 1:27).

Said R’ Shmuel bar Nachmani: In the hour when the Holy One created the first human, [g-d] created him double-faced/du-par'tsufim and sawed him and made backs - a back here and a back here.

They objected to him: But it says, “took one of his ribs” (Genesis 2:21)! He said to them: [It means] his sides,” just as you would say, “And for the side/tsela of the mishkan” (Exodus 26:20).

Rabbi Yose says: The androginos is a created being of its own and the sages could not decide if a man or a woman. It is not so with a tumtum, for sometimes he is a man and sometimes a woman.

Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar said: Adam was first created with two [deyo] 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). Similarly, it is written: “And the tzela, which the Lord, God, had taken from the man, He made a woman, and brought her unto the man” (Genesis 2:22). Rav and Shmuel disagree over the meaning of the word tzela: One said: It means a female face, from which God created Eve; and one said: Adam was created with a tail [zanav], which God removed from him and from which He created Eve.

The Gemara asks: Granted, according to the one who said that Eve was originally a face or side of Adam; it is understandable that it is written: “Then the Lord God formed [vayyitzer] man” (Genesis 2:7). Vayyitzer is written with a double yod, one for Adam and one for Eve. However, according to the one who said that Eve was created from a tail, what is conveyed by spelling vayyitzer with a double yod?

...Rabbi Ami said: Abraham and Sarah were originally tumtumin,as it is stated: “Look to the rock ...

Yevamot 64b

from where you were hewn, and to the hole of the pit from where you were dug” (Isaiah 51:1), and it is written in the next verse: “Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you” (Isaiah 51:2), which indicates that sexual organs were fashioned for them, signified by the words hewn and dug, over the course of time.

Rav Naḥman said Rabba bar Avuh said: Our mother Sarah was initially aylonit, as it is stated: “And Sarah was barren; she had no child” (Genesis 11:30). The superfluous words: “She had no child,” indicate that she did not have even a place, i.e., a womb, for a child.

As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are.

הנה נא ידעתי BEHOLD NOW I KNOW — The Midrashic explanation is: Until now he had not perceived her beauty owing to the extreme modesty of both of them; now, however, through this event, he became cognisant of it (Midrash Tanchuma, Lech Lecha 5).

Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years; Sarah had stopped having the periods of women.

And Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “Now that I am withered, am I to have enjoyment—with my husband so old?”

בקרבה [SARAH LAUGHED] WITHIN HERSELF (or, REGARDING HER INSIDE) — She reflected on her physical condition, saying, “Is it possible that these insides shall bear a child, that these dried-up breasts shall give forth milk” (Midrash Tanchuma, Shoftim 18).

דינה DINAH (Judgment) — Our Rabbis explained, that Leah set herself up as judge (דנה) against herself saying: “If this be a son, my sister Rachel cannot be even the equal of any of the handmaids”. She, therefore, offered prayer regarding it, and its sex was changed (Berakhot 60a).

Is a prayer in that case ineffective? Rav Yosef raises an objection based on a baraita: It is stated: “And afterwards she bore a daughter, and called her name Dina” (Genesis 30:21). The Gemara asks: What is meant by the addition of the word: Afterwards? What does the verse seek to convey by emphasizing that after the birth of Zebulun she gave birth to Dina? Rav said: After Leah passed judgment on herself and said: Twelve tribes are destined to descend from Jacob, six came from me and four from the maidservants, that is ten, and if this fetus is male, my sister Rachel will not even be the equivalent of one the maidservants; immediately the fetus was transformed into a daughter, as it is stated: And she called her name Dina; meaning she named her after her judgment [din]. The Gemara rejects this: One does not mention miraculous acts to teach general halakha.

והוא נער AND HE, BEING A LAD — His actions were childish: he dressed his hair, he touched up his eyes so that he should appear good-looking.

She (Tamar) was wearing an ornamented tunic, for maiden princesses were customarily dressed in such garments.