Over several years, we have heard the stories of hundreds of people—people from many different backgrounds, Jews and non-Jews, across the sex and gender spectrum. Many of us are in search of answers to some critical questions: how can Jewish texts continue to shed light on contemporary lives and spiritual struggles? As our understandings about sex and gender continue to develop and change in today’s world, how might ancient teachings guide us in our response? If I want to explore Jewish understandings of gender and sexual identity where do I begin?

We offer this guide as a starting point. It will continue to grow as we post more texts on a wide variety of topics. Welcome!

Rabbi Elliot Rose Kukla
Reuben Zellman

Our goal for this project is to create a portal to Jewish traditions. It is not our intention to provide a complete or "authoritative" interpretation of these multi-faceted texts. Rather, we want to offer a variety of ways of looking at these remarkable texts — which have been, and still are, largely inaccessible to the general public. Some of the content of this site may be familiar to you; some of it might be very surprising. We invite you to read on and engage with all of it, in the great Jewish tradition of study and discussion.

Inside this guide you will find translations of a number of Jewish texts dealing with sex and gender. You will also find commentaries on these texts, representing the work of Jewish scholars from ancient times to the present day. Jewish texts have their own particular logic and language. This means that a straightforward translation is often challenging. However, every primary source text in this site includes a translation — you do not need to know any Hebrew, or have any background in Judaism, to use this site!

Every primary text also has a "Further Explanation" link. Click on this button for more context of each passage; follow the links throughout this site for vocabulary, other key concepts, and more related texts.

• Educators of all varieties could use these texts as the basis of a class or discussion group.


• Community leaders may use this information as background for social justice initiatives.


• Rabbis and other spiritual leaders may want to consult these texts to begin to answer some of the questions being raised in many congregations about Jewish attitudes towards gender.


• Transgender, intersex and gender nonconforming people, as well as family members, allies and friends, might use this site in order to better understand the depth of history and the many meanings of gender diversity in Judaism.