Episode 62: The Rabbis and Gender with Gwynn Kessler

“[The Rabbis] show us, and texts from antiquity across the board show us,  that any silly political insistence that there are only two sexes and there always have been, is just straight up nonsense. They attest to more than two genders. And yet, we repeat it so often that they inherit a binary system from the Bible and then scholars writing about gender have projected our assumptions about their binaries on the text.” - Gwynn Kessler

Welcome to The Oral Talmud, our weekly deep dive chevruta study partnership, discovering how voices of the Talmud from 1500 years ago can help us rethink Judaism today. 

The Torah says one thing. Life keeps saying something more complicated. This conversation turns one of Judaism's oldest texts into a living laboratory, asking whether every generation has the responsibility to expand inherited tradition when it no longer reflects the world as we know it. The result is a conversation that challenges not only how we read the Talmud, but why we read it at all.

We have a guest today – Gwynn Kessler, a professor of religion at Swarthmore College. Together with her, we explore gender, power, interpretation, and the surprising ways ancient rabbis wrestled with a changing world. Along the way, we ask a bigger question that reaches far beyond Judaism: Is faithfulness about preserving the past exactly as we received it—or having the courage to tell a truer story today?

Gwynn Kessler’s research focuses on rabbinic interpretation of Scripture—or midrash—and more specifically on rabbinic theology and rabbinic constructions of gender and identity. Her book Conceiving Israel: The Fetus in Rabbinic Narratives explores rabbinic traditions regarding the fetus for the purpose of examining rabbinic constructions of gender, ethnicity, and theology.

Find an edited transcript and full show notes (references and further reading) on The Oral Talmud webpage for this episode! Access the Sefaria Source Sheet to explore key Talmud texts and find the original video of our discussion. The Oral Talmud is a co-production of Judaism Unbound and SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva. If you’re enjoying this podcast, please help us keep both fabulous Jewish organizations going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation at oraltalmud.com. You can find a donate button on the top right corner of the website.