Carnal Isræl: Reading Sex in Talmudic Culture (158 page)

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Authors: Daniel Boyarin

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BOOK: Carnal Isræl: Reading Sex in Talmudic Culture
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answered [that it means], "one of his sides," similarly to that which is written, "And the side (
tsela
') of the tabernacle" [Exod. 26:20].
(Theodor and Albeck 1965, 5455)
In this text, we have two accounts of the origin of the sexes of humanity. The first interpretation is that the first human, the one called "the adam," was androgynous. It had genitals of both sexes, and the act of creation described in Genesis 2 merely separated out the two sexes from each other and reconstructed them into two human bodies. The second statement (that of Rabbi Samuel) seems best understood as a specification and interpretation of the first, namely that the first human was like a pair of Siamese twins who were then separated by a surgical procedure. Both of these interpretations use Greek terminology (
androgynos, dyprosopos
*) to describe the original two-sexed (or two-faced) Adam, and, as usual, the use of the "alien" word is not culturally innocent.
The myth of the first human as androgyne, which is mocked in Plato's
Symposium,
is of course well known from Greek literature as old as the pre-Socratic Empedocles (Macdonald 1987, 25). The Rabbis, however, were much more likely to have encountered the myth in the form in which it became widely known among both Jews and Gentiles in late antiquity: the myth of the spiritual, primal androgyne. For Philo and his congeners, as we have seen, the return to the original state of humankind involves a putting off of the body and sexuality and returning to a purely spiritual androgyny (Macdonald 1988, 28285, and King 1988, 165). Those Rabbis for whom the original state of physical androgyny was divided to create the two separate sexes believed that the physical union of man and wife restores the image of the original whole human.
25
What my reading proposes is the rabbinic usage of a topos of Hellenistic Jewish culture to reverse its meaning. The very allusion to the surrounding culture signals resistance to it.
The interpretation that the first human was an androgyne later split into two bodies is explicitly motivated by the same hermeneutic issue that led to Philo's interpretation: the desire to render the two accounts
25. Compare Augustine who "grants woman humanity as long as she is joined by a man, 'so the whole substance may be one image.' Marriage becomes a prerequisite for women's humanity. A single woman remains essentially incomplete. The male, on the other hand, represents the divine by himself" (von Kellenbach 1990, 207). I am
not
suggesting that Augustine's position represents all of Christianity.
 
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coherent and produce them as a single narrative. But in addition to the widespread midrashic view that Primal Adam was a physical androgyne, we also find readings that take him to be a male, from whom the female was created, as in our Western culture's more familiar interpretations of the story:
And He took one of his ribs/sides
(
tsela
'): Rabbi Samuel the son of Nahman says, "one of his sides, as you say
and the side
(
tsela
')
of the Tabernacle on the North
" [Exod. 26:20]. And Shmuel said, "He took a rib from between two of his ribs."
(Theodor and Albeck 1965, 157)
First, the reading of Rabbi Samuel the son of Nahman is recapitulated in brief, namely that the first human was androgynous and the so-called rib was really a side. But then this view is challenged by Shmuel, who understands the rib as a rib and therefore holds that the first human was male and the woman was a secondary creation. All of the Rabbis assume that the two accounts describe the creation of one kind of humanity, not two kinds. According to the Talmud, Shmuel, who holds that woman was not created at the beginning, understands the verse "Male and female created He them" to indicate that it was God's
intention
to create both male and female at the beginning. Indeed, because the Rabbis' non-dualist anthropology precludes a theory of dual creation such as Philo's, there is no other way to read the verse. Thus even Shmuel, who does interpret the woman as a secondary construction, understands sexuality and difference to be essential rather than supplemental to the constitution of the human. The traditional rabbinic marriage ceremony, in which the following blessings are chanted, also follows the "rib" version of the story and understands sexuality as essential:
[Blessed art thou, O Lord King of the Universe,] who created the Adam in his image, in the image of the likeness of his form, and constructed for him, from him, an eternal construction. Blessed art thou, O Lord, the creator of humanity.
The Barren Woman will be exceedingly joyful and glad when she gathers her children into her with happiness. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who makes Zion happy in her children.
Make happy the loving friends, as you made your creature happy in the Garden of Eden in the beginning. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who makes the groom and bride happy.
Blessed art thou, O Lord King of the Universe, who has created joy and happiness, groom and bride, bliss, rejoicing, elation and cheer, love, brotherhood, peace and friendship. Quickly, O Lord, our God,

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