THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, August 16, 1974-13
Halakha Forbids Sex-Change
S ays Yeshiva U. Talmud Scholar
NEW YORK — Citing bibli- transform sexual character-
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cal injunctions and recent
commentaries, a Yeshiva
University talmudic scholar
contends that the changing of
one's sex through surgery is
forbidden by Jewish law.
Rabbi J. David Bleich, tal-
mudic 'instructor at Rabbi
Isaac Elchanan Theological
Seminary and assistant pro-
fessor of philosophy at Stern
College for Women, wrote
that "the growing accept-
ance of transsexual surgery
has made the question of sex
change a topical halakhic
issue."
In an article in Tradition,
published by the Rabbincal
Council of America, Rabbi
Bleich wrote that trans-
sexuals are persons born with
the anatomy of one sex but
who suffer from- an identifi-
cation with the other sex.
Transsexuals, , believed to
number about 10,000 in the
U.S., are being treated medi-
cally by a combination of
hormone therapy and sex-
change surgery. It is esti-
mated that some 1,500 have
changed their sex by surgi-
cal means.
Rabbi Bleich cited Leviti-
cus 22:24, "And that which
is mauled or crushed or
torn or cut you shall not offer
unto the Lord; nor should
you do this in your land," as
an explicit biblical prohibi-
tion of sex-change operations.
He also noted an argument
advanced by Rabbi Meir
Amsel, editor of the rabbinic
journal Ha-Ma'or. The com-
mandment "A woman shall
not wear that which pertains
to a man, nor shall a man
put on a woman's garment"
(Deuteronomy 22:5), he said,
is not limited to the wearing
of apparel associated with
the opposite sex, ibut encom-
passes any action uniquely
identified with the opposite
sex. _
A procedure designed to
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NEW YORK (JTA)—Some mind.
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Rabbi Albert Friedman,
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istics, he wrote, violates the
very essence of this prohibi-
tion. This prohibition, he con-
tends, may also extend to
hormone treatments effect-
ing a reversal in secondary
sexual characteristics.
Once a sexual transforma-
tion has actually taken place,
Rabbi Bleich said, a host of
practical halakhic questions
arise, hinging upon, "the
crucial conceptual problem
of whether or not a change of
sex has indeed occurred
from the point of view of
Halakha."
He noted that sex-change
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