What can an analysis of ancient rabbinic eunuchs and androgynes teach us about Judaism, Religious Studies, and the project of transgender history? This review session focuses on Max Strassfeld's recent book, Trans Talmud: Androgynes and Eunuchs in Rabbinic Literature (2022). Trans Talmud considers the rabbis’ categories of eunuchs and androgynes and their intricate taxonomies of gender as a key to understanding an array of cultural tensions. Strassfeld claims the figures of eunuchs and androgynes as key to rabbinic efforts to define normative masculinity, while simultaneously exceeding and transforming the boundaries of Jewish law. The book pairs classical Jewish texts with intersex autobiography, transgender studies, and theories of queer temporality. It thereby seeks a reassessment of Jewish sources in the wake of nonbinary gender, challenging our understandings of gender in Religious Studies more broadly. This panel considers the implications of this multilayered work for the study of religion.
| Max Strassfeld, University of Arizona | mstrassfeld@email… | View |