Q&A: Transgender People in Jewish Law and Circumcision
Transgender People in Jewish Law and Circumcision
Question
Hello Rabbi Michi!
I haven’t yet seen whether you wrote a new column about this, but I’ll ask anyway.
1. Can a transgender man (who transitioned from female) be counted for a minyan, and can he be called up to serve as the prayer leader?
2. Today I’m not very sure that bottom surgery for trans women involves castration. In Israel it is performed at Tel HaShomer, and I need to check, but I think they take skin from the scrotal sac and do a procedure there, and it comes out as female genitalia. I’ll get back to you with a more in-depth answer on the subject. My question is whether there is permission for bottom surgery if it does not involve castration.
3. If some anonymous person was circumcised by a surgeon, and he apparently did not recite the blessing over the circumcision but did cut the foreskin and performed metzitzah, is his circumcision valid?
4. Would you recommend, as a graduate of the faculty, electrical engineering/mathematics at Bar-Ilan, or is Tel Aviv preferable? In terms of the lecturers and tuition.
Answer
I only just now wrote two columns on this subject, 701–2.
As for your questions:
1. See column 701.
2. If there is no castration involved, then at most this is wounding, and in my opinion there is no prohibition in that. It is no different from cosmetic surgery.
3. Metzitzah does not invalidate the circumcision if omitted (and in my opinion it is unnecessary). The question is whether he did it for the sake of the commandment, irrespective of the blessing. If he simply performed a surgery, it seems to me that this is like someone who was born circumcised, who requires drawing covenantal blood. But this still requires further examination.
4. I have no idea. Tuition is the same.
By the way, I studied engineering in Tel Aviv, not at Bar-Ilan.