Torah Transcestors and Their Kabbalistic Overtones

Rabbi Ami said: Abraham and Sarah were originally tumtumin, people whose sexual organs are concealed and not functional, as it is stated: “Look to the rock

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.

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).

Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred (Gen. 12:9). R. Berechiah opened the discussion with the verse: We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts; what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for? If she be a wall, we will build upon her a turret of silver; and if she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar (Song 8:8–9). To whom does Scripture refer in this verse? It refers to Abraham at the time when Nimrod ordered that he be hurled into the fiery furnace. He was little because the Holy One, blessed be He, had not yet performed any miracles in his behalf. By why was he called “sister” (ahot)? Because he united (iha) all mankind (into a single brotherhood) before God, just as one who tears a garment apart and then sews it together. Hence, he was called a sister.

(1) יסכה YISCAH — This was Sarah; she was also named Yiscah (from a root meaning “”to see”, “to look”) because she could see the future by holy inspiration, and because everybody looked (gazed) at her beauty (Megillah 14a). The name Yiscah also has reference to princely dignity (נסיכות) just as the name Sarah (שרה) has an allusion to “ruling’’(שררה).

Sarah, as it is written: “Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah” (Genesis 11:29). And Rabbi Yitzḥak said: Iscah is in fact Sarah. And why was she called Iscah? For she saw [sakhta] by means of divine inspiration, as it is stated: “In all that Sarah has said to you, hearken to her voice” (Genesis 21:12). Alternatively, Sarah was also called Iscah, for all gazed [sokhin] upon her beauty.

Rav Naḥman said that Rabba bar Avuh said: Our mother Sarah was initially a sexually underdeveloped woman [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.

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” (Midrash Tanchuma, Shoftim 18).

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.

"Joseph was seventeen years of age, etc" (Genesis 37:2), and it further says "He was a youth" (ibid.), rather that he did youthful things. He touched up his eyes, he picked up his heels, he fixed his hair.

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

When Joseph came up to his brothers, they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the ornamented tunic that he was wearing,