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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.
Price: $29.95
Pages: 262
Publisher: University of California Press
Imprint: University of California Press
Publication Date:
03 October 2023
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9780520397392
Format: Paperback
"In a world that seeks to erase our history and our bodies, these texts provide images of a past where we may have existed, albeit with complexities. To study Talmud is to dream our past into the future, and to engage in the act of traveling through time accompanied by our ancestors’ voices. . . . As queer, trans and nonbinary Jews do the work of consciously creating a usable past, Trans Talmud invites us to do so with more integrity and precision."
"Dr. Max Strassfeld, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Arizona, now offers us a welcome guide to Talmudic gender(s) in this meticulous, far-reaching, and lyrical book. It welcomes a wide variety of readers with patient explanations of central concepts in the fields of gender and queer studies and the world of the Talmud and rabbinic literature of late antiquity."
"Strassfield…nourishes the discussion of the ancient texts on a marginalized community then and now. Recommended to interested individuals and academic libraries."
"Trans Talmud regularly disrupts our understandings of sex, gender and sexuality, and so too of what scholarship itself is meant to be. Strassfeld makes these texts come to life as he sprinkles gems of insight and relevance throughout."
"A thought-provoking book. . . . [that] will be a point of reference for future studies on bodies that challenge the binary categorization of sex/gender in late ancient Jewish literature and beyond."
"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. "
"Strassfeld’s warm accessible and highly personal narrative style, and the ease and clarity with which he moves back and forth between the Talmud and modern social issues, make this text an ideal resource for Reform rabbis seeking to teach about gender and sexuality to our congregants and students."
Max K. Strassfeld is Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies and Classics at the University of Arizona.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Transing Late Antiquity: The Politics of the Study of Eunuchs and Androgynes
2. The Gendering of Law: The Androgyne and the Hybrid Animal in Bikkurim
3. Sex with Androgynes
4. Transing the Eunuch: Kosher and Damaged Masculinity
5. Eunuch Temporality: The Saris and the Aylonit
Conclusion: Rereading the Rabbis Again
Bibliography
Glossary
Inde
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Transing Late Antiquity: The Politics of the Study of Eunuchs and Androgynes
2. The Gendering of Law: The Androgyne and the Hybrid Animal in Bikkurim
3. Sex with Androgynes
4. Transing the Eunuch: Kosher and Damaged Masculinity
5. Eunuch Temporality: The Saris and the Aylonit
Conclusion: Rereading the Rabbis Again
Bibliography
Glossary
Inde