Talmud Oddities: Sexual Ambiguity
Posted by Nathan in Ramblings, tags: Mitzvah, Talmud, Torah, WorkIt has been a while since I found a Talmud oddity that was worth posting about. The last couple of tractates have been a bit dry. I am fully versed in the number of doves I am allowed to kill for a Yom Tov and what to do if when I decide they are for my Yom Tov meal - set aside - as 2 white dove and I wake up in the morning and there is one black one white. In short, you starve because it is a mess. You figure out where the black one came from and where your white one went. My take away, kill your doves ahead of time, cage them up, or mark them with some kind of paint, then you will always know which ones are the truly set aside doves.
ANYWAY, a few days ago I came across the sages discussing the mitzvah of blowing the shofar. They mentioned the obligation of a tumtum and an angdrogyne. I was a bit shocked. Were the sage about to discuss the halacha of trannies? I couldn’t imagine such a thing, but they did, and it would appear that there is much subsequent work in the area of people born with indeterminant sexual characteristics.
Rambam is quoted in a descriptive article to have said:
Someone who has male organs and female organs is termed a hermaphrodite (androgynous), and it is questionable if he is a male or a female. And whoever has neither male nor female [organs visible] but is “closed” (atum), is called a tumtum, and this [child] is also a [matter of] doubt. If the tumtum is “torn” [i.e., the "closing" (covering) is opened] and is found to be male, then he is certainly a male; and if it is found female, then she is a female.11
I really do not have more to say than this on the subject. It is just curious that the sages tried to figure out what rules these type of people should follow since the Torah doest really account for there obligations.
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