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.

About the Author

Max K. Strassfeld is Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies and Classics at the University of Arizona.

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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

Learn More

Interview with Max K. Strassfeld on jewishsfsu.edu

Reviews

"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."
— Lilith

"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."
— Jewish Book Council

"Strassfield…nourishes the discussion of the ancient texts on a marginalized community then and now. Recommended to interested individuals and academic libraries."
— Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews

"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."
— Journal of Jewish Studies

"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."
— Religious Studies Review

"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. "
— Reading Religion

"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."
— Reform Jewish Quarterly

“Refreshingly self-reflective, this project represents an entirely new way of writing rabbinics scholarship. One of the first texts I’ve read in years that stands to be a genuine ‘field-shaking’ book.”—Rachel Rafael Neis, Jean and Samuel Frankel Associate Professor of Rabbinics, University of Michigan, and author of The Sense of Sight in Rabbinic Culture: Jewish Ways of Seeing in Late Antiquity

“This book is a thrilling achievement, sure to be a touchstone for years and likely decades to come. Max Strassfeld makes an immense contribution to the study of rabbinic texts, the ancient world, and gender, sexual, and embodied variability, so much so that a rather wide range of audiences will benefit tremendously from this theoretically informed yet engagingly indispensable book.”—Joseph Marchal, Professor of Religious Studies, Ball State University, and author of Appalling Bodies: Queer Figures Before and After Paul’s Letters

Awards

AAR Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion: Textual Studies 2024 2024, American Academy of Religion
AAR Best First Book in the History of Religions Finalist 2023 2024, American Academy of Religion
Nahum Sarna Memorial Award Finalist (Scholarship) 2023, Jewish Book Council

About the Book