CBI Blogs

Anyone who wishes to come to CBI and worship with us in peace will always be welcomed with great love, and protected with great fervor.

Part of being a holy, welcoming community is respecting how people wish to be identified. As many of you likely know, a recent and troubling Executive Order claims that there are two genders, male and female. Specifically, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” claims “sexes (sic) are not interchangeable…” The EO claims it is defending women’s rights, describing the anomalous bad-actor as the rule rather than the exception, painting transgender people as deviants rather than as our friends and neighbors deserving of our love and support.

Everyone who identifies by any or no gender(s) is welcome at CBI, will be respected by others at CBI. Everyone will be identified how they prefer to be identified. Judaism extols the virtue of welcoming, and this is a virtue held in high regard by Congregation Beth Israel.

The rhetoric in this EO is also contrary to the teaching of our Talmudic Rabbis nearly two thousand years ago. The Talmud identifies six categories of gender identification. They are:

• Zachar: This term is derived from the word for a pointy sword and refers to a phallus. It is usually translated as “male” in English.
• Nekevah: This term is derived from the word for a crevice and probably refers to a vaginal opening. It is usually translated as “female” in English.
• Androginos: A person who has both “male” and “female” sexual characteristics.
• Tumtum: A person whose sexual characteristics are indeterminate or obscured.
• Ay’lonit: A person who is identified as “female” at birth but develops “male” characteristics at puberty and is infertile.
• Saris: A person who is identified as “male” at birth but develops “female” characteristics as puberty and/or is lacking a penis. A saris can be “naturally” a saris (saris hamah), or become one through human intervention (saris adam).

Most of the distinctions among these genders have nothing to do with sexuality or marriage, and never is there a suggestion that a person’s gender endangers any person from another gender. The Rabbis are hyper-focused on making sure all parties in any dispute (especially in regards to inheritance) are treated justly that they come up with reasons why those with genders other than zachar and nekevah are to be treated fairly, because the commandments are generally worded in male/female language.

Furthermore, the identifications of ay’lonit and saris hamah are often in flux. The development of other gender characteristics happens over the course of time for these two groups, and either could easily be translated as “gender fluid.” So clearly Jewish law is in conflict with the EO signed this week, and in this case I side with Jewish law.

No matter what a person’s pronouns are, no matter how they identify, no matter what it says on a government-issued ID, I want to repeat because it is important: Everyone who wishes to worship at CBI in peace will always be welcomed with great love.