Tumtum (Judaism)

Tumtum (Hebrew: טומטום, "hidden") is a term that appears in Jewish Rabbinic literature. It usually refers to a person whose sex is unknown because their genitalia are hidden, undeveloped, or difficult to determine.

Although they are often grouped together, the tumtum has some halakhic ramifications distinct from those of the androgynos (אנדרוגינוס), who have both male and female genitalia.

Although tumtum does not appear in the Scripture, it does in other literature. Reform rabbi Elliot Kukla writes, "The tumtum appears 17 times in the Mishna; 23 times in the Tosefta; 119 times in the Babylonian Talmud; 22 times in the Jerusalem Talmud; and hundreds of times in midrash, commentaries, and halacha."

In the Babylonian Talmud Yevamot 64a–b, Rabbi Ammi says that the Biblical figures "Abraham and Sarah were originally tumtumim" and infertile and then miraculously turned into a fertile husband and wife in their old age. Rabbi Ammi points to the Book of Isaiah 51:1–2, saying that the references to "Look to the rock from where you were hewn, and to the hole of the pit from where you were dug [...] Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you" explains their genitals being uncovered and remade.