Nonbinary genders would have been no surprise to ancient rabbis

'Genderqueer' and 'nonbinary' are contemporary terms for people who don't fit neatly into male or female categories. But acknowledging that not everyone fits neatly into those two groups has a much longer history than you might suspect.

As a scholar of Judaism and gender, I find that people across the political spectrum often assume religion must be inherently conservative and unchanging when it co…