Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] The focus of this perek, which was added on to the Mishnah later on, is somebody who is an androginos. An Androginois or an androgynous, is one who has the signs and the features of both a man and a woman. And because of that, he has the stringencies of both of them. Now, just before we begin the Mishnayas, it's important to realize that there are many different versions of this perek and what exactly the wording of the peric is. So we're following the one which appears in the Kahati Mishnayas as well as in many other sets of Mishnayas, and that is also the version which appears on time for Mishnah's Mishnah texts. And so that is the one which we will follow asks the mission, in what ways do the laws of an androgynous, in what ways are his laws the same as the laws for a regular man? So firstly, he becomes tommy if a whitish liquid, a whitish substance, emerges from his body, just like a man would become tome if that occurs to him. If a whitish liquid flows from a woman's body, she remains pure. But if it flows from a man's body, then he becomes tommy. So since an androgynous might be a man, he is tome out of doubt.
[00:01:03] Him, he should dress like men dress. There's a prohibition for a man to dress like a woman and for a woman to dress like a man. So how should an androgynous dress? The answer is he should dress like a man. And we'll explain the reason for that in a moment.
[00:01:17] He can marry a woman but cannot be married to a man, just like men can marry a woman but not be married to a man. Now, bearing in mind that an androgynous is a doubt, we're not sure whether he's a man or a woman. On surface level, this part of the mission doesn't make sense because surely he shouldn't be able to marry a woman either, in case he himself itself or it itself is a woman. So the Farsham explained, what we're talking about over here is not whether you're allowed to marry a man or woman. The halach is, at least according to this perek, where we consider him to be a doubt is he is not allowed to marry a man or a woman. An androgynous cannot get married. So what does the mission here mean? So it's referring to somebody who has already got married to a woman. It's forbidden. But let's Say he does. So if this andrognus is a Cohen. In general, the halach is that any woman who is married to a Cohen is allowed to eat truma. So what the mission is telling us is that if the androgynous marries a woman and that androgynous is a Cohen, then just like he can eat truma, so too his wife is now allowed to eat truma. However, if an androgynous were to marry a man and that man was a Cohen, then the androgynous would not be able to now eat truma from now on, just cuz he's married to this man. And the reason for this difference is as follows. As we know, it's forbidden for a man to have relations or get married to a man. And it is also forbidden for a woman to have relations or get married to another woman. However, the ava of a man marrying a man is far more severe than a woman marrying a woman. The Torah calls it a t an abomination, and that is a more severe prohibition. That being the case, for an androgynous to get married to a woman is less of a problem than an androgynous getting married to a man. And because of that, since the avera is less severe and it's only out of doubt, so his wife would be allowed to eat truma. Now, the truth is, this is only referring to Truma Mijabanon, for example, nowadays any truma which is separated from produce and given to a kohen, that's only an obligation.
[00:03:10] So since the truma is anyway only midrabanon truma rice, it's considered regular food. And since the androgynous might be a man, in which case he's not even doing an avera by marrying this woman. So if they do get married, then the woman, the wife, is allowed to eat truma. However, if the androgynous marries a man, he cannot begin to eat truma. Since. Since even though it's only a doubt as to whether he's doing an avera or not, nevertheless, that avera is so severe that even though it's a doubt, he is still forbidden to eat truma. Even if that, Truman, is Midrabanon. Now, coming back to what we said before, that the androgynous should dress like a man, why is that so? Again, it's a similar reason. But since he has to dress either like a man or a woman, so what should he do? He should dress like a man. Since the way of men is to get married to women, so it's better that that occurs, rather than him getting dressed like a woman, which might attract men to want to marry the androgynous, and that is a worse prohibition. And therefore the androgynous should dress like a man. All right, continues the list. The imoy the mother of an androgynous, when she gives birth to him, we'll refer to an androgynous for now as to him. So the halach is that when a woman gives birth to a son, so she is Tommy for seven days, and then for the next 33 days until day 40, any blood which flows from her is considered to.
[00:04:28] On the other hand, when she gives birth to a daughter, everything is doubled, so she will be Tommy for 14 days, two weeks instead of just one week. And then any blood which flows from her until day 80 is considered Tahar pure. So when it comes to the days that her blood will be tohar, we are more strict when it comes to a man, because then it's only up to day 40 that it will be tahar, whereas when it comes to a woman, it's much more, it's up to day 80. So here we are stringent and we say that his mother, when giving birth to an androgynous, will sit over him, meaning because of him, her blood will be considered for the same amount as it would be had she given birth to a regular man, I. E. Until day 40 only. Next, he may not have yichud with a woman, meaning he cannot be alone in a room with a woman. Kwanoshim, Just like a man cannot be alone in a room with a woman, it's another stringency, in case he is a man, is not fed with the daughters, just like men. So what is that referring to? So if a man who has both sons and daughters dies, and he only leaves behind a little bit of money, the Halakh is that the sons do not inherit anything, and all of his money goes towards supporting his daughters, unless there's enough money to support the daughters as well as the sons inheriting the extra. So clearly, in that case the daughters, the women, have priority. And so the mission is saying that the androgynous does not have that priority, and that is another stringency which applies to an androgynous, in case he has a man, another stringency over about he transgresses the avera of circling his head, and that refers to the midst of having pe Us, so that one's head is not totally circular, the hair. That's why we have pes. But that mitzvah only applies to men about Tashis and the prohibition to destroy one's beard, to use a razor on one's beard. Again, that only applies to men about to Tamina Mason. And the prohibition for a Cohen to become Tommy from contact with a dead body. Again, that only applies to male kayanim. And in the same vein, it applies to an androgynous who is a Cohen, again, in case he is a man, just like men.
[00:06:33] And an androgynous is obligated to keep all of the mitzvahs which are said in the Torah, even those ones which are mitzvah, a positive mitzvah which is bound to a specific time. So women are exempt from those types of mitzvahs. Nevertheless, an androgynous is obligated even in those mitzvahs, just like men, because he is possibly a man.
[00:06:55] In what ways does an androgynous resemble a woman with regards to his laws? So firstly, he becomes Tommy if a red substance flows from his body, and that refers to blood. So just like a woman becomes Tommy if blood flows from her, whereas a man would not become Tommy if that happened. So in this way, we are stringent on an androgynous that he is like a woman. So it would be Tommy. Out of doubt.
[00:07:18] An androgynous cannot have Yechud. He cannot be alone with a man, just like women cannot be alone by the by herself with another man. Now, the next one on the list refers to the mitzvah of Yum, and that is that if a man marries somebody and he dies before they have children, there's a mitzvah that the brother of the dead man should do Yibum. He should marry the dead man's wife, the widow that is known as Yum. And if he doesn't want to marry her, then they can go through a process called khalitza. But this whole mitzvah only applies if the dead man's brother can have children himself. So the mission says that if the dead man has no brothers, but he has an androgynous, an androgynous sibling. So an androgynous in general cannot have children, and therefore he does not create an obligation of Yibum Kanoshim, just like had he been a woman, of course, if the dead man only has sisters, there would be. There would be no obligation of Yibum, because that obligation is only on the brother of the dead man to marry the dead man's wife. Now, coming back to the museum, inheritance. If the father leaves behind a lot of money, his Daughters never inherit the money. They only ever get enough to support themselves. So if the father had a lot of money, that will mean that his sons get far more money than the daughters, because they, the daughters, only get enough to support themselves. So says the mission. In that way we are stringent on the androgynous.
[00:08:36] He does not split the inheritance with the sons, just like the women, just like the daughters. So he would only get the smaller amount. In that case, just enough to support himself.
[00:08:48] He can't eat the carbonas, which are on the level of koch kochim, which are carbonas with a high level of sanctity. And the halach is that only male koyanim can eat those carbonas, and they have to eat it within the base hamikdash. So since this androgynous is possibly not a male, he cannot eat the koche kochim. Now, if you recall, if a woman gives birth to a son, then she's tome for a week and then toha until day 40. If she gives birth to a daughter, then she is Tommy for two weeks, and her blood will be toar until day 80. So when it comes to how long she is tommy for, it is more strict for a woman, for a daughter, she'll be tommy for two weeks. And therefore the mission says the image shemis in his mother sits over him, meaning when the mother gives birth to him, but dam tome, her blood will be considered to him for the same amount of time that it will be tome for a daughter, and that is two weeks, continues the mission.
[00:09:43] He is an invalid witness. Kanoshem, just like women are invalid witnesses. Now, the halacha is that if a woman comes from a family of Kim, and therefore she is allowed to eat truma at least until she gets married. If she has illegal relations, for example, if one of her relatives has relations with her, that is a severe prohibition. And the consequence of that is that she loses her right to eat truma anymore. So the misha says if this androgynous has illegal relations, for example, he has relations with one of his male relatives, says the mishra, just like if he was a woman, Cohen, he becomes invalidated from eating truma anymore, kanoshem, just like women. So if he was a coin, he can no longer eat truma. Mr. Dalit, in what ways are the halochas of an androgynous the same as both men and women? So firstly, somebody who hits him or injures him would be obligated to pay him for the damages and for the injuries.
[00:10:40] Or if somebody curses him One is not allowed to curse another Jew. And if he does, then he is liable to the punishment of lashes of being hit with malchus. And that applies if you do it to any human being, including an androgynous, just like if you did that to any man or any woman. The ha if somebody kills an androgynous, so shoge, if he did it by mistake, Goyle, he goes to Gollus, he's exiled to an irmitclot, a special city to which those who kill by mistake need to flee or maze it. And if he killed an androgynous on purpose, then Naharok he has killed, just like had he killed any man or woman, Kanoshem. In that sense, an androgynous is like any man or any woman. Now, although a woman's blood which flows from her after she gives birth is Tommy or Toho for different amount of days, depending on whether it's a man or a woman, a boy or a girl. But regardless of whether it's a boy or girl, once she has completed the days where she was tahar. So either day 40 or day 80, she needs to bring a carbon. So it says the mission of that applies to an androgynous as well. And of course, out of doubt, you would have to wait until after the 80 days and then bring the carbon, or the two carbonas actually, which a woman who gives birth must bring, continues the mission of he can eat these sanctified items, the sanctified food of the Buddhas. And that refers to sanctified foods such as truma, and which can be eaten in the entire Eretz Israel, not just in yerushalayim, like my sashini or bikurim. So things which can be eaten throughout the entire Eretz Israel, those can be eaten by men and women. So says the Mishnah. The same applies to an androgynous. And in this way, he is considered like both men and women and ends off the Mishnah. Again, to do with inheritance. And although we've seen so far that we're always stringent on the androgynous, and he always gets the smaller amount of inheritance, either with the women or with the men, if he is the only child, then he would inherit the entire inheritance in a case where there's no one else to inherit, and in that case he is kanoshem, like both men and women, and that he can inherit. So the point of this mission is really to show us that androgynous is not really considered to be its own creature in itself, its own Gender in itself. Rather, we're just not sure whether it is a man or a woman. We'll see at the end of the peric. There is another opinion which argues with this.
[00:12:57] In what ways is an androgynous not the same as a man or a woman? Firstly, in Sofin Turuma, one would not burn truma al tumas zivosai if it became tome from the tumor which an androgynous got from a whitish substance which flowed from him, or if blood flowed from him. Because as we said before, it's true that an androgynous becomes tommy in these situations, but only out of doubt. So since it's only a doubtful tumor, although in general, if truma becomes tommy, it has to be burnt. If truma is not tommy, it's forbidden to destroy trummer. So since there's a possibility that he is not tommy, so if he touches the truma, the truma is also not tommy, and therefore it cannot be burnt. Similarly, if he becomes tommy as a result of one of these substances exiting his body, so that means he's only a tommy person. Out of doubt. So if he enters the mikdash while he is in that state of tuma, the he would not be liable to the punishment of k and he would not be to bring a carbon if he enters hamikdash as a result of being that level of tuma. And this is because the Torah specifically says from a man until a woman, which implies that this is only applicable to a definite male or a definite female. And so an androgynous would not be.
[00:14:13] And in this way he is different to men and women. Now, the halakas of Jewish slaves are different for men and women. For example, if a man steals something and he can't pay back, the Torah says he will be sold as a slave because of his theft. Now, the Torah says specifically because of his theft, and we learned from there that a woman who steals is not sold as a slave. Now, the halacha is that when it comes to a woman, a father is able to sell his young daughter before she reaches the age of bas mitzvah, he's able to sell her as a slave, but that does not apply to a man. So since the Torah specifies different halachas about slaves for men and women, so an androgynous cannot be sold as a slave at all, at least in those two scenarios, because the Torah only allows for that in a case of a definite male or a definite female, and therefore and androgynous cannot be sold as a Jewish slave.
[00:15:06] And in that way he is dissimilar from both men and women.
[00:15:10] Is if somebody wants to give his value of himself to the the Torah prescribes specific values for men and women, depending on their age. But again, the Torah specifies that the value of a man, of a definite man is such, and for a woman it is such. But since an androgynous, we're not sure which one he is, so he doesn't really have that value and therefore he cannot be evaluated and that value given to the base hamikdash. And in that way he is not neither like a man nor like a woman. So we've seen from this Mishnah that in some ways an androgynous is unlike a man and a woman. So because of that Vm Omar if somebody says, let's say he sees an androgynous passing in front of him and he says harani Nazir, behold, I'm a Nazir. I'm accepting upon myself to restrict myself from the things which a noser cannot benefit from or cannot do on condition.
[00:16:01] On condition that an androgynous is considered neither a man nor a woman. So although in this peric so far we have considered an androgynous either a man or a woman, we're just not sure. However, since there are laws in which an androgynous is not like a man nor a woman, as we just listed a few in our mishnah, therefore this person Nazir, he is considered a Nazir, since in some ways an androgynous is neither like a man nor a woman. Narci, as we alluded to earlier on, argues on really the entire pericles because rabies and rabies says Andre Guinness, this person, this Andre Guinness, he's actually a creature in itself.
[00:16:40] And the Chachomi were not able to decide about him in who Ish Ayesha whether he is a man or a woman. Reason being that an androgynous is not considered a man or a woman, it's considered its own creature, its own gender. And therefore, at least according to the way we're understanding of yeah, others do understand it differently, but the way we have explained to be Yaisi is that he really argues on the entire peric because we would not apply the stringencies of both men and women on an androgynous, because we only do that according to the Tanakama of the whole Perek that he might be a woman, he might be a man, so we have to give him the stringencies of both. But according to Yasi he is neither a woman nor a man. And therefore all astringencies would not apply to an androgynous. Now, the Mishta discusses for a moment another type of creature, a type of human, and that is a tum tum. And a tum tum is the exact opposite of an androgynous. An androgynous has signs and features of both a man and a woman, whereas a tum tum has neither the signs or the features of a man nor a woman. And this is because a tum tum's male and female parts are actually covered by skin. And so we're just not sure whether it's a man or a woman. But it is one of them is not like an androgynous, because sometimes a tumtum is a man, sometimes it's a woman, we're just not sure. It could be later on in life the skin will be uncovered, but either way, it is not its own gender, its own type of human being. It's a man or a woman, we're just not sure which one. So when it comes to a tum tum, Ruby agrees that all of the stringencies which we have listed in the Perak would apply to a tum tum. And with that we conclude.
[00:18:21] Mazel tovs.
