Chapter 19 of Leviticus has been characterized as a parallel to the Ten Commandments. Rav Hiyya explained that the reason it was to be read “unto all the congregation” is because most of the essential laws of the Torah can be derived from it. (Leviticus Rabba 24).
I invite you to read it! It is in my humble opinion, far superior to the Ten Commandments. It’s lyrical in the way it seamlessly moves from the ethical to ritual. It calls the lie to anyone who would distinguish between ritual law and moral law…. As Everett Fox writes: “[It] is wide-ranging and rhetorically powerful. It extends holiness to virtually all areas of life – family, calendar, cult, business civil and criminal law, social relations, and sexuality.” (The Five Books of Moses, Everett Fox p. 600.)
What detracts from the breadth of vision, is the emphasis in the preceding and following chapters (Leviticus 18, also read at the afternoon service of Yom Kippur, and chapter 20) which seem to be fixated on sexual perversion of every kind.. and I mean every kind, including incest, bestiality and homosexuality.
I would have you consider that much of what the Torah detests about sexual deviation, has nothing to do with being puritanical and disrespectful of alternative gender definitions and preferences. To the contrary, it prescribes that every human being enter a relationship and find a help mate. Rather it is a rejection of the individual self sufficiency which belongs only to God and a rejection of the inbreeding necessary to support the autocratic rule and tribal caste system of the Canaanites and the Ancient Near East.
(כז) וַיִּבְרָ֨א אֱלֹקִ֤ים ׀ אֶת־הָֽאָדָם֙ בְּצַלְמ֔וֹ בְּצֶ֥לֶם אֱלֹקִ֖ים בָּרָ֣א אֹת֑וֹ זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה בָּרָ֥א אֹתָֽם׃
(27) And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
(לה) אַתָּה֙ הָרְאֵ֣תָ לָדַ֔עַת כִּ֥י ה' ה֣וּא הָאֱלֹקִ֑ים אֵ֥ין ע֖וֹד מִלְבַדּֽוֹ׃
(35) It has been clearly demonstrated to you that the LORD alone is God; there is none beside Him.
אין עוד מלבדו. זה הוא מלכות
There is none Besides Him: This is Kingship...
(א) וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹקִים נַעֲשֶׂה אָדָם בְּצַלְמֵנוּ כִּדְמוּתֵנוּ (בראשית א, כו), רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן פָּתַח (תהלים קלט, ה): אָחוֹר וָקֶדֶם צַרְתָּנִי וגו', אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן אִם זָכָה אָדָם, אוֹכֵל שְׁנֵי עוֹלָמוֹת, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: אָחוֹר וָקֶדֶם צַרְתָּנִי, וְאִם לָאו הוּא בָּא לִתֵּן דִּין וְחֶשְׁבּוֹן, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (תהלים קלט, ה): וַתָּשֶׁת עָלַי כַּפֶּכָה. אָמַר רַבִּי יִרְמְיָה בֶּן אֶלְעָזָר בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁבָּרָא הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא אֶת אָדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן, אַנְדְּרוֹגִינוֹס בְּרָאוֹ, הֲדָא הוּא דִכְתִיב (בראשית ה, ב): זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה בְּרָאָם. אָמַר רַבִּי שְׁמוּאֵל בַּר נַחְמָן, בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁבָּרָא הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא אֶת אָדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן, דְּיוּ פַּרְצוּפִים בְּרָאוֹ, וְנִסְּרוֹ וַעֲשָׂאוֹ גַּבִּים, גַּב לְכָאן וְגַב לְכָאן. אֲתִיבוּן לֵיהּ וְהָכְתִיב (בראשית ב, כא): וַיִּקַּח אַחַת מִצַּלְעֹתָיו, אֲמַר לְהוֹן מִתְּרֵין סִטְרוֹהִי, הֵיךְ מָה דְאַתְּ אָמַר (שמות כו, כ): וּלְצֶלַע הַמִּשְׁכָּן, דִּמְתַרְגְּמִינַן וְלִסְטַר מַשְׁכְּנָא וגו'.
(1) ... Said R’ Yirmiyah ben Elazar: In the hour when the Holy One created the first human, He created him [as] an androgyne/androginos, as it is said, “male and female He created them”. Said R’ Shmuel bar Nachmani: In the hour when the Holy One created the first human, He created [for] him a double-face/di-prosopon/ du-par’tsufin, and sawed him and made him backs, a back here and a back [t]here, as it is said, “Back/achor and before/qedem You formed me” [Ps 139:5]. They objected to him: But it says, “He took one of his ribs/ts’la`ot . . . ” [Gn 2:21]! He said to them: [It means] “[one] of his sides/sit’rohi”, just as you would say, “And for the side/tsela` of the Tabernacle/ mishkan” [Ex 26:20], which they translate [in Aramaic] “for the side/seter”.
אִי נָמֵי כִּדְרַבִּי יִרְמְיָה בֶּן אֶלְעָזָר. דְּאָמַר רַבִּי יִרְמְיָה בֶּן אֶלְעָזָר: דּוּ פַּרְצוּפִין בָּרָא הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא בָּאָדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״אָחוֹר וָקֶדֶם צַרְתָּנִי״.
Alternatively, this duplication in the language of creation can be explained in accordance with the statement of Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar, as Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar said: The Holy One, Blessed be He, created two faces [du partzufin] on Adam the first man; he was created both male and female in a single body, as it is stated: “You have formed me [tzartani] behind and before” (Psalms 139:5); tzartani is derived from the word tzura [face]. God formed two faces on a single creation, back and front.
The First Adam, Androgyny, and the ʿAin Ghazal Two-headed Busts in Context
Author(s): Irit Ziffer
Source: Israel Exploration Journal , 2007, Vol. 57, No. 2 (2007), pp. 129-152
Published by: Israel Exploration Society
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27927170
Two-headed human statues with a common torso are a known feature of the ancient Near East, beginning with the inception of monumental statuary in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period (the first half of the seventh millennium BCE) at ‘Ain Ghazal, north-east of Amman. The following survey focuses on the two headed statues from ‘Ain Ghazal the earliest of their kind to have been discovered so far in an attempt to establish their significance.
The Sages in early Talmudic times knew the myth of the primeval androgyne and used it to account for the contradiction between the two stories of creation. In the Midrash, the first human being, the 'Adam', was androgynous, incorporating the genitals of both sexes, and the tale of the creation from the rib in Genesis 2 provides for the separation of the two sexes of the primeval body, reconstructing them as two human bodies. According to the Babylonian Talmud (Berakhot 61a; Erubin 18a), Genesis Rabba 8.1 and Leviticus Rabba 14 (fifth century), the man was created dipros?pos, 'two faced' (VDliHD-n), that is, male and female (Meeks 1974:186). 'Two faced' is a way of describing Adam, the first human being, with out the use of corporeal or sexual terms, a euphemism for the bisexual progenitor of the human race.
Historically speaking, androgyny symbolizes the perfect human being: female attributes cast into a male vessel.
In the Mesopotamian creation myths, the human body is a divine creation made of clay in which divine ingredients are mixed. It is not defined according to gender; it was produced in a single process before the existence of sex and gender, and therefore encompasses every possible gender. Only in the second creation were male and female couples created with genital organs vital for the reproduction of the species (Asher-Greve 1998: 29).
על כן יעזב איש. רוּחַ הַקֹּדֶשׁ אוֹמְרָה כֵן לֶאֱסֹר עַל בְּנֵי נֹחַ הָעֲרָיוֹת (סנהדרין נ"ז):
in other words, the source of unchaste sexual behavior (“Arayot” in Hebrew) is when a man does not leave his father and mother… sister, brother etc. but mates with them!
חסד הוא. לְשׁוֹן אֲרַמִּי חֶרְפָּה חִסּוּדָא; וּמִדְרָשׁוֹ אִם תֹּאמַר קַיִן נָשָׂא אֲחוֹתוֹ חֶסֶד עָשָׂה הַמָּקוֹם, לִבְנוֹת עוֹלָמוֹ מִמֶּנּוּ, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (תהילים פ"ט), עוֹלָם חֶסֶד יִבָּנֶה (ספרא; סנהדרין נ"ח):
the biblical premise remains… inbreeding is a rejection of God and a rejection of God’s role as man’s only ruler. Royalty wants to mix and re-mix it’s blood to protect their superior “blue” blood and to justify the subjugation of the commoner and stranger. God wants us, wherever possible, to leave our father and mother and create our bloodline with our fellow human commoners.
To claim that one can have a child, without the need of the other sex, is to claim divinity…. and therefore an abomination.