About a week back, I summarized by Jewish Link article promoting teaching grammar and linguistics, deeply for Hebrew and broadly across multiple languages, in order to understand the actual mechanics of the derashot Chazal. I also argued for actually looking at the verses inside a Chumash, to that we could see them in context, see what the
Perhaps the Gemara is understanding תחת in the sense of "exchange", in which case it would make sense that the man and woman should be approximately "equal".
Fascinating theory about derashos. I think I found an example recently, Sotah 27a
״אֲשֶׁר תִּשְׂטֶה אִשָּׁה תַּחַת אִישָׁהּ״, לְהַקִּישׁ אִישׁ לְאִשָּׁה וְאִשָּׁה לְאִישׁ. לְמַאי הִלְכְתָא? אָמַר רַב שֵׁשֶׁת: כְּשֵׁם שֶׁאִם הוּא סוֹמֵא לֹא הָיָה מַשְׁקָהּ, דִּכְתִיב: ״וְנֶעְלַם מֵעֵינֵי אִישָׁהּ״, כָּךְ הִיא, אִם הָיְתָה סוֹמָא — לֹא הָיְתָה שׁוֹתָה. רַב אָשֵׁי אָמַר: כְּשֵׁם שֶׁחִיגֶּרֶת וְגִידֶּמֶת לֹא הָיְתָה שׁוֹתָה, דִּכְתִיב: ....
Perhaps the Gemara is understanding תחת in the sense of "exchange", in which case it would make sense that the man and woman should be approximately "equal".