DOR TAHPUKHOT: AN AGAINST-THE-GRAIN READING OF ORTHODOX JEWISH LAW (HALAKHAH) ON GENDER AFFIRMATION SURGERIES

This article examines the attitude toward gender affirmation surgeries expressed in a particular work of Jewish law (halakhah), Dor tahpukhot (A generation of radical change, 2004) by Idan Ben-Efrayim, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi of Sephardi origin. By following the hermeneutical maneuvers used by the author to accept transgender people, post factum, into the religious community, our against-the-grain reading of Dor tahpukhot reveals that the Orthodox halakhic approach is more complex and empathetic than might be expected. In our reading, Dor tahpukhot reinforces the notions that genitals are not the essential sign of gender, that the classification of persons as of one gender or another does not always work, and that the concept of gender in religious tradition is a more flexible concept than has commonly been thought. This analysis contributes to the growing field of transfeminist religious studies as well as to scholarship on Jewish religious feminism, by demonstrating that where there is a rabbinic will, gender essentialism can be overlooked.