פירוש על יבמות 8:6

רבי יוסי ור"ש אומרים כו' – for they hold that a [Kohen who is also] a person who exhibits traits of both sexes is like a male but Rabb Yosi retracted and stated in a Baraita (see Talmud Yevamot 83a) that a person who exhibits traits of both sexes is a creature of its own kind, but the Sages did not decide like him whether it is a male or a female. Therefore, he does not feed Terumah/priest’s due [to members of his family].

Introduction This mishnah deals with several categories of people who are of doubtful gender status. A hermaphrodite is a person who has the outer sexual signs of both a male and a female. A tumtum is a person who has no outer sexual signs.

רבי יהודה אומר כו' – but the Halakha is not according to him for we hold above (see Tractate Yevamot, Chapter 8, Mishnah 4) that a man castrated by man performs Halitzah and his wife removes the shoe of the brother of her deceased husband who refuses to perform levirate marriage and a person of undetermined sex who was torn is like a eunuch castrated by a man.

If a priest who was eunuch by nature married the daughter of an Israelite, he confers upon her the right to eat terumah. A eunuch by nature is not forbidden from marrying Israelite women (he is not considered to be a “petzua daka”, one whose testes were crushed. Therefore, if he is a priest and he marries the daughter of an Israelite, the marriage is valid and he is allowed to eat terumah.

אנדרוגינוס נושא אבל לא נישא – because he is a like a male and whomever lies with him is like someone who comes upon a male in pederasty, whether through the male genitals or the female genitals.

Rabbi Yose and Rabbi Shimon stated: if a priest who was an hermaphrodite married the daughter of an Israelite, he confers upon her the right to eat terumah. A priest who is a hermaphrodite is allowed to marry the daughter of an Israelite. With regard to marriage, he is treated as if he was fully male. Therefore, if he is a priest, his wife may eat terumah.

ר"א אומר חייבין עליו סקילה כזכר – and especially in the place of his male genitals but not in his female genitals, and the Halakha is according to Rabbi Eliezer.

Rabbi Judah stated: if a tumtum was opened up and found to be a male, he may not perform halitzah, because he has the same status as a eunuch. A tumtum may have been born with his sexual organs covered by a thin sac of skin. Even if they open up this sac and find that he is male, he may not perform halitzah, since his status is like that of a eunuch. Assumedly, the tumtum cannot procreate and therefore is exempt from the laws of halitzah and yibbum.

The hermaphrodite may marry [a wife] but may not be married [by a man]. As we learned in section two, a hermaphrodite is treated like a male. He may marry a woman but may not be married by a man.

Rabbi Eliezer stated: concerning the hermaphrodite, [the one who has relations with him] is liable to be stoned like one [who has relations with] a male. According to Rabbi Eliezer, if another man has relations with a hermaphrodite, he is liable to be stoned, as are all men who engage in intercourse with other men. This is Rabbi Eliezer’s way of stating that the hermaphrodite is to be treated completely as if he is a male.