Trans Talmud: Androgynes and Eunuchs in Rabbinic Literature

by Max K. Strassfeld

Trans Talmud places eunuchs and androgynes at the center of rabbinic literature and asks what we can learn from them about Judaism and the project of transgender history. Rather than treating these figures as anomalies to be justified or explained away, Max K. Strassfeld argues that they profoundly shaped ideas about law, as the rabbis constructed intricate taxonomies of gender across dozens of texts to understand an array of cultural tensions. Showing how rabbis employed eunuchs and androgynes to define proper forms of masculinity, Strassfeld emphasizes the unique potential of these figures to not only establish the boundary of law but exceed and transform it. Trans Talmud challenges how we understand gender in Judaism and demonstrates that acknowledging nonbinary gender prompts a reassessment of Jewish literature and law.

 

Genres: Judaism, Queer, Nonfiction, Religion, LGBT, Gender and Sexuality, Jewish

261 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2022

Reviews

[Lea]

Very interesting book that could've benefitted from not having trans in the title, most of the connections being made to present day identities are constructed through the frameworks of intersex and disability studies with some thought being given to transphobic narratives in current politics but not a lot of thought is given to what talmudic gender stabilisations and destabilisations mean for a present day halakhic transgender context. Not what I was expecting but still very interesting for what it is!

[Ella]

There’s a lot to love here (and I saw the author give a talk when I was in undergrad that I quite enjoyed) but I am at such low jargon tolerance right now that I was constantly sending quotes to my grad school cohort like ‘I see your incomprehensible theory-jargon and I raise you this overly tangled nonsense.’ Also, look, I’m a historian. I am here for discussions of reading and interpreting late antique writings in the contexts of late antiquity. I am less interested in thematically connecting everything with a contemporary parallel.

[Rachel]

Nonbinary gendered individuals found in the Talmud: Max. K. Strassfeld (who uses the pronouns they/their) was fascinated by the discussions they discovered about them in the rabbinic text. Strassfeld wanted to know more, to not just understand what the rabbis thought, but how that knowledge could contribute to contemporary understanding of trans and intersex (someone with mixed male and female biological traits) individuals. In “Trans Talmud: Androgynes and Eunuchs in Rabbinic Literature” (University of California Press), the author notes that their interest is not the same as the rabbis; in fact, they deliberately use a “bad/trans” (their words) reading of the text that may influence contemporary readers’ ideas about gender.
See the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/past...

[Sara]

This book is beautifully written and offers fresh, creative, and above all compelling readings of rabbinic literature. Scholars of both trans studies and rabbinics will have a lot to learn here.

[Shane]

I feel like the title of this book is very misleading, which lead to me being pretty frustrated and disappointed

[e!!!!]

TLDR: Judaism changed when the temple fell, so it’s inaccurate and supercessionist to leverage “Judeo-Christian” values against trans theology. There’s a rich history of acknowledging the mutability of sex, so the author argues let’s continue that practice.

Review: I was hoping to read more case studies, or about more specific figures. It’s more of a linguistic study of six terms, and a very slow, but good argument for why the field of study should leverage queer lenses. But I already believe that, obviously, so I found the pay-off of getting through the jargon and repetitive (but necessary) information as he corners his rhetorical opponent shall we say, not worth it. I found the conclusion the most fun to read, everything else was like oh yes we are defining things again.

Good, but written for people in his field not “non-specialist.”

[Rachel]

what was promised: A look at modern trans life through the understanding of Jewish law
What was written: a 200 page book about levitate marriages.