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moved, leaves a real vagina since this is its place in a woman, and she
was undoubtedly a woman.

To the above, it might be apt to add the argument that in fashion-
ing a vagina the physicians are not creating anything new, rather they
are completing the structure of this particular woman’s body. This
idea is found in the Medrash Tanchuma (Tazria, 5):

“The wicked Turnus Rufus asked Rabbi Akiva,‘Whose handiwork
is more comely, Hakadosh baruch Hu’s or man’s?’ He answered,
‘Man’s handiwork is more comely.’ Said wicked Turnus Rufus, ‘Can
man make anything comparable to heaven and earth?’ Rabbi Akiva
replied, ‘Don’t talk to me about things which lie beyond human be-
ings, over which they have no control, but only about those things
that are commonplace among people.’ He asked him, ‘Why do you
circumcise yourselves?’ Said Rabbi Akiva,‘I knew that you were going
to speak to me about that, which is why I first told you that man’s
handiwork is more comely than that of the Hakadosh baruch Hu.’
Rabbi Akiva brought him stalks of corn and bread rolls and told him,
‘These [ears of corn] are Hakadosh baruch Hu’s handiwork and these
[bread rolls] are man’s handiwork. Aren’t these nicer than the ears of
corn?’ He brought him bundles of raw flax and flaxen garments from
Beis She’an and told him, ‘These [bundles of raw flax] are Hakadosh
baruch Hu’s handiwork and these garments are man’s handiwork.
Aren’t these garments nicer?’ Said Turnus Rufus to him, ‘Since He
wants circumcision to be done, why doesn’t He bring the child out
from its mother’s womb already circumcised? Said Rabbi Akiva to
him, ‘And why does the umbilical cord come out attached to his ab-
domen and his mother cuts it And why isn’t he born circumcised?
Because Hakadosh baruch Hu only gave Yisrael the mitzvos to refine
them.’” In our case too, perhaps it can be said that man’s handiwork
completes the creation of this woman.

ɳ Summary and Conclusion

It is permissible to live with a woman in whom an artificial vagina has

The Hermaphrodit 2 169