HerTorah: Gender, Judaism, Journey

(27) And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.

(18) And Hashem God said: ‘It is not good that the Man should be alone; I will make a help meet for him.’ (21) And Hashem God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the place with flesh instead thereof. (22) And the rib, which Hashem God had taken from the man, He made into a woman, and brought her unto the man. (24) Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.

(1) And God said: Let us make Adam in our image, in our shape: R' Yirmiyah ben Elazar said, when Hashem created Adam HaRishon, he was created as both genders; thus is it written, "male and female did He create them." R' Shmuel bar Nachman said, when Hashem created Adam HaRishon, He created him with two faces, one on each side, and [when He made Chavah,] He split him along the middle, forming two backs. They challenged him: but it is written, "And He took one of his ribs!" He said to them, ["mitzalosav" doesn't mean rib, it means] one of his sides, similar to that which is said, "and to the 'tzela' of the Mishkan," which is translated "the side of the Mishkan."

(1) An Androginus (most likely - someone 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. (5) Rabbi Meir Says: Androginus is a (gender) category of its own, (because) the rabbis could not decipher whatever s/he/they is a man or a women. However a Tumtum is not so, as at times s/he/they is fully male, and at times s/he/they is fully female (but we can't tell which).

Rabbi Shimon was journeying to Tiberias, and there were with him, Rabbi Yosi, Rabbi Yehuda, and Rabbi Hiya. While on the way, they saw Rabbi Pinchus coming to meet them. After exchanging greetings, they all sat down under a great shady tree by a hillside.

Then Rabbi Shimon said: "It is written, 'and he went on his journeys from the south to Bethel unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Hai' (Gen. 13:3). It says, 'He went on his journeys' instead of 'his journey.' Why is that? There is a reference not only to his own journeying, but also that of the Shekhinah, who always went with Abraham, and therefore we learn that every person needs to be male and female at all time, for the sake of his faith, he ought not to think or imagine that the Shekhinah forsakes him in any way.

See, it has been said, a man ought always to cleave to his wife that the Shekhinah may always be with him, yet it is possible to go alone on a journey and the Shekhinah will still be with him. And when doing so he ought to direct his prayer to the Holy One that this may be, and in this way the male and female will always be associated in union with oneself.

(Translation by Abby Stein)