Torah & Sexuality: Multiple Genders

(1) An Androginus (a hermaphrodite, who has both male and female reproductive organs) is similar to men in some ways and to women in other ways, in some ways to both and in some ways to neither.

(2) In what ways is s/he similar to men?

Like a man, s/he is considered unclean through semen; s/he dresses like a man. S/he marries but is not taken as a wife, like a man. The mother counts the blood of purification as of a man [33 days, but she is defiled for 14 days, like after the birth of a girl, she only has 26 days of the 33 left]. And s/he may not be in the company of women, like a man. S/he is not maintained together with the daughters [s/he has to go begging like male heirs]. And if [s/he shaves the corners of his head or beard], s/he transgresses the prohibitions of "Do not round the corners of your head and do not destroy the edge of your beard" (Lev. 19:27). And if a priest [who is androgenous] gets defiled, s/he has transgressed. "Let none defile him/herself for a dead person" like a man, and s/he is obliged to perform all of the commandments in the Torah, like a man.

(3) How is s/he like a woman?

S/he defiles with a red [issue of blood] like a woman, and s/he many not be alone in the company of men, like a woman. S/he does not obligate levirate marriage [upon his/her childless brother's death] like a woman. And sh/he does not share in the inheritance of the sons, like a woman. And s/he does not eat of the terumah of the Temple, like a woman. The mother counts the blood of defilement like that of a woman [14 days instead of 7], and s/he is disqualified from being a witness, like a woman. And if s/he was the victim of an illicit relationship, s/he is disqualified from eating terumah, just like a woman.

(4) How is s/he like both men and women?

One is liable for hitting or cursing him/her, as with either men or women. And one who kills him/her accidentally must go into exile, and if intentionally, he is executed, as with either men or women. His/her mother brings on account of his/her birth a sacrifice as [she would] for a man, or a woman. S/he may eat terumah in the provinces, if s/he [is the sole heir, s/he] inherits any inheritance, like any man or woman.

(5) How is s/he like neither men nor women?

[If s/he touched terumah after having either a white or red issue], terumah is not burned on account of this issue [however, if s/he saw both white and red at the same time, then s/he would defile the terumah, since regardless of whether s/he is male or female, s/he is impure], nor is s/he liable on account of entering the Temple [in such a state, even if s/he saw white and red simultaneously, this is deduced from the verse: "Both male and female shall you send away outside the camp" (Numbers 5:3), thus s/he needs to be either a definite male or a definite female; hence s/he is treated] neither like men nor like women. And s/he is not sold as a Hebrew servant, neither as a man, nor as a woman, and s/he does not have a valuation, neither as a man, nor as a woman. If one says: May I be a nazir if this [pointing at androgenous] be neither man nor woman, one becomes a nazir.

Rabbi Yose says: androgenous is a category of its own and the Sages could not ascertain if s/he is a man or a woman, whereas a tumtum is either a definite male or definite female [but we can't tell which because the organs are covered].