Priest and Androgynous: The Metamorphosis of a Halakhic Case and its Gender Politics

This paper investigates the metamorphosis of a halakhic case of a kohen (priest) who is an androgynous or, in modern terms, an intersex person. This kohen, who has both a male reproductive organ and a female one, can be sexually active both as a man and as a woman. The halakhic case is analysed in light of the rabbinic perception of sexual intercourse. The textual evidence for the androgynous case has been chosen diachronically from early rabbinic literature to the sixth-century work, Ma‘asim li-bnei Eretz Israel, composed in the Land of Israel. We also aim to explore the gender politics and strategies motivating the different usages of the term androgynous and show the dynamics of its development from the third to the sixth centuries.