Then there are more problematic mitzvot. Like if a man marries one, he presumes to be a virgin and finds she’s not, two possibilities exist. If he has lied and it is proven, he is flogged, required to give the woman’s father 100 shekels, and she remains his wife and he loses the right to divorce her. Now I wonder, why on Hashem’s green earth would she want to stay with this jerk. But worse, if she indeed is proven not to be a virgin, she is stoned to death. Really? He gets a flogging, but she gets the death penalty? Such laws of course were common in the Middle East and at least there was a process by which she could prove her innocence. Fortunately, time and Rabbis over the centuries have brought us to a day when these laws are reinterpreted and today no women are being stoned.
There are several other mitzvot I could address, but I wanted to focus on one, well two. As a transwoman, I understandably cringed reading “A woman must not put on man’s apparel, nor shall a man wear women’s clothing, for whoever does those things is abhorrent to Adonai your G_d. Then a bit later, this. “No one whose testes are crushed or whose member is cut off shall be admitted into the congregation of Adonai.” Oy am I ever in trouble! Lol my member was not cut off, simply split and reshaped. But the testicles?
Fortunately, here time has marched on. Here’s a blurb regarding Rashi (11th century Rabbi) in Sefaria as follows:
Excerpt from "To Wear Is Human: Parshat Ki Teitze" by Rabbi Elliot Kukla and Reuben Zellman, 2006
"The prohibition (Deut. 22:5) that we learn from this verse is very specific: we must not misrepresent our true gender in order to cause harm. Otherwise, wearing clothing of another gender is not prohibited. The Talmud puts it most succinctly: v’ein kan toevah – “there is no abomination here.”
Rabbi Amy Scheinerman in her blog Taste of Torah dated 9-15-16, she discusses the variety of gender options in Talmud including androgynos (intersex), tum tum (genitalia indeterminate), eylonit (a masculine woman) and saris (a feminine man). While most of these had to do with anatomical features, a product of the time in which they lived, they understood way back then that there were more genders than the binary of early Biblical works. Later rabbinical rulings affirmed that a gender identity could change based on circumstance.
So today, while gender identity can confront some within orthodoxy, the rabbinical interpretations of gender have affirmed our existence as trans people. The Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist Movements have all formally endorsed full equality for all who might be lesbian, gay, transgender, non-binary etc.
I’ve said before, I take Torah seriously, but a single verse does not lock everything into stone. We revisit these parsha readings each year and have since the destruction of the second Temple. Our Talmud, Midrashim, and Rabbis ever since have expanded our understanding of Torah, realizing new possibilities. As a Jew, I feel fully included in my community. What a blessing.
So much has changed since these rules were spoken by Moshe for Israel to abide by. We no longer keep slaves. Women nor men are stoned anymore. Buried within the patriarchy of their day, much good in the law code can be found. Customs and our understanding of the world around us has evolved. With it has come an evolution in our understanding of that world. We can’t ignore the words of the past, but we can remember through the ages those amazing steps forward that bring us to this day. A day when I can say without reservation, thank you Hashem for making me a woman.
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