Thought nonbinary gender was a modern concept? Think again. The ancient Jewish understanding of gender was far more nuanced than many assume. The Talmud , a huge and authoritative compendium of Jewish legal traditions, contains in fact no less than eight gender designations including:.
In fact, not only did the rabbis recognize six genders that were neither male nor female, they had a tradition that the first human being was both. Versions of this midrash are found throughout rabbinic literature, including in the Talmud:. Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar also said: Adam was first created with two faces one male and the other female. Help us keep Jewish knowledge accessible to millions of people around the world. Your donation to My Jewish Learning fuels endless journeys of Jewish discovery.
With your help, My Jewish Learning can continue to provide nonstop opportunities for learning, connection and growth. Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar imagines that the first human was created both male and female β with two faces. Later, this original human being was separated and became two distinct people, Adam and Eve. According to this midrash then, the first human being was, to use contemporary parlance, nonbinary.
Then God split this original person in half, creating the first man and woman. Plato, Symposium , ff. The androgynos was in fact a recognized gender category in their present β though not with two heads, only both kinds of sex organs.
The term appears no less than 32 times in the Mishnah and times in the Talmud. Most of these citations are not variations on this myth, but rather discussions that consider how Jewish law halakhah applies to one who has both male and female sexual characteristics.
