For the source text click/tap here: Yevamot 81
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Among the halakhot presented in our Mishnah, Rabbi Yossi and Rabbi Shimon teach that a woman who marries an androgynous kohen will be permitted to eat terumah, i.e. that we view the marriage as a legitimate one, even though the status of an androgynous – who has both male and female sexual organs – as a man who can marry is questionable.
Given the questionable status of this marriage, the Gemara searches for an explanation of this ruling. One suggestion that is made is that we only permit her to eat terumah d’rabbanan – produce that is only considered terumah on a Rabbinic level – since terumah in our day-and-age is only a Rabbinic mitzvah.
We explore the biological characteristics of hermaphroditism, androgyne in Ancient Greece ending with the use of bisexuality in kabbalistic metaphors of the “nesirah” or splitting of Adam into two sexually gendered beings.