Acute Angles: Time to Take the Gloves Off!

Dear Rabbi. Imane Khelif recently won a gold medal in boxing at the Olympics. There was a question whether she is biologically a woman or not. What would Judaism have to say? Thanks. Magdala.

Dear Rabbi Ingram. What a sickening spectacle we witnessed last weekend! An ailing 58-year-old ex-champion allowed in a boxing ring to fight a man half his age for pure entertainment and fat cash.  Whatever next?  What would Judaism say? Kalman M.

Dear Magda and Kalman,

I shall address both your questions as one.  As you will see, ultimately my main reaction to both your questions is essentially the same.

It appears Kheilif was indisputably born a female, i.e. with female genitalia, and thus approved to compete as a female boxer by the International Olympic Committee yet disqualified by the International Boxing Association in 2023 after genetic testing disclosed a chromosomal abnormality.

Contrary to popular assumption, Judaism does recognise certain non-binary biological sex classifications – note we are talking anatomically and physiologically, not about gender self-identity. The most common are tumtum (indeterminate sex) and androgynos (hermaphrodite), mentioned in the Mishna. The Talmud also recognises the aylonit, a female who does not develop as such. It is possible for one assumed to have been born female to develop male secondary sex characteristics during puberty. Or she may have a congenital hormone imbalance or polycystic ovary syndrome causing increased testosterone levels.

Generally the halachic position is that genitalia, not chromosomes or hormones, determines one’s sex. Thus, assuming Khelif was indisputably born a female, halacha would appear to back the IOC categorisation rather than the IBA one.

However the real issue regarding what Judaism would have to say is whether these two boxers should have been in the ring at all!

The same applies perhaps to an even greater extent to the shameful promotion of an exhibition bout between 27-year-old peak-of-fitness  boxing champion Jake Paul and 58-year-old Mike Tyson – who recently was seen in an airport wheelchair suffering from sciatica and holding a stick –  broadcast on Netflix to an 18.1-million-plus audience who were baying for blood and are disappointed to the extent that accusations are flying that the fight was rigged.  If indeed Tyson and Paul had “come to an arrangement” not to hurt each other, it would actually have been the most moral of choices, short of them not entering the ring altogether.

The preponderance of halachic opinion is that boxing, or indeed any “sport” requiring the deliberate infliction of physical damage upon a fellow human being, whether regulated or otherwise, is prohibited by Torah law.

The Talmud (Ketubot 33a) derives that hitting an innocent person breaches a mitsva of the Torah from the verse prohibiting one blow more than the 39-maximum judicially administered by the ancient Sanhedrin for certain transgressions “lest your brother will be degraded in your eyes” (Deut 25:3) Conclude our sages: If it is forbidden to give even one extra judicial lash to a transgressor, all the more so must it be forbidden to hit an innocent person, who is deserving of no lashes whatsoever.

What if it is by mutual consent? The halachic consensus is: this makes no difference.  Humankind was created betslem Elokim, in the image of G-D. To strike a human being is to strike G-D’s likeness.  We do not have autonomy to cause abuse either to our own bodies or to those of others. As we say in our Selikhot prayers: “The soul is Yours and the body is Yours!”

All this is in the realm of Jewish halacha. What about hashkafa, what about rules of decent human conduct? It appears to me absolutely inexplicable that in 2024 when society is so conscious of protection-of-species, of animal welfare, of nature conservation, that it is so tone-deaf when it comes to the issue of one human being inflicting pain or injury or indeed humiliation on another human being in the name of “sport”.  Not to mention the hypocrisy of the world condemning Israeli “violence” every time it acts in legitimate self-defence against those who seek our extermination while at the same time applauding gratuitous violence in a boxing ring.

For women to engage in boxing, in my eyes, is even more horrific. We saw how, in her opening bout against Kheilif, Italy’s Angela Carini felt in genuine danger of her life after just 46 seconds – against a biological female like herself!  Shouldn’t that be a wake-up call?  Piously, the world preaches the protection of women and sees societal violence against women as particularly horrific – and rightly so – yet, when it comes to sports these days it refuses to make any such distinction? Of course, we know that in the 2020s the mantra of “gender-equality” trumps all!

Well, let’s make men’s and women’s boxing absolutely equal. Let’s ban both! Let it go the way of bear-baiting and bullfighting.   In supposedly-enlightened 2024, it certainly should!