Talmud Nazir (E)

(11) Being obligatory, they might he thought not to count as things dedicated by a vow.
(12) Lit., ‘they are seized by a vow’. Although the obligation to offer a sin-offering does not result through a vow, yet
the animal to be used must he dedicated by the owner, ‘This is my sin-offering.’
(13) Probably R. Gamaliel III son of R. Judah ha-Nasi I (called simply Our Teacher) cf. Halikoth ‘Olam I, 3.
(14) Deut. XV, 19.
(15) And so the firstling must he excluded as an object of comparison.
(16) Num. VI, 2. And so should it not he possible to vow to become a nazirite like Samson?
(17) High Priest circa 300 B.C.E., v. however Aboth (Sonc. ed.) p. 2, n. 1.
(18)  He feared that nazirites, after defilement would regret their vows because of the inevitable prolongation. As the
sacrifice would then retrospectively prove to have been unnecessary, he refused to eat of it.
(19) Lit., ‘drive me from the world’.
(20) Lit., ‘by the (Temple) service’, a common form of oath at this period.
(21) Num. VI, 2. [The story has a parallel in the familiar Narcissus story, Ovid, Metamorphoses, III, 402ff; but its moral
in endowing the youth with the power of self-mastery is evidently superior.]
(22) I.e., was not his naziriteship the result of a vow?
(23) Judg. XIII, 5.
(24) Judg. XV, 16.
(25) Judg. XIV, 19.
(26) [Defilement is communicated only after the last breath of life is gone.]
(27) The verse following states that Absalom vowed to serve the Lord. This, together with the known length of his hair,
leads to the conclusion that he was a life-nazirite. II Sam. XV, 7.
(28) II Sam. XIV, 26; yamim usually means ‘days’.
Talmud - Mas. Nazir 5a
Talmud - Mas. Nazir 5a
Talmud - Mas. Nazir 5a
and the meaning of the word ‘yamim’ here is decided by its meaning when used in connection with
houses in walled cities;
1
 just as there it means twelve months,
2
 so here it means twelve months. R.
Nehorai said: [Absalom] used to poll every thirty days. R. Jose said: He used to poll on the eve of
each Sabbath,for princes usually poll on the eve of each Sabbath.
 
    [We have said that] Rabbi's reason [for interpreting ‘yamim’ as a year] is because of its occurrence
in connection with houses in walled cities. But has not Rabbi himself said that ‘yamim’ [in that
connection] means not less than two days?
3
 — The only reason that he uses the comparison at all
4
 is
because of the reference to the heaviness [of Absalom's hair],
5
 and two days’ growth is not heavy.
6
 
    Why should it not be two years, in accordance with the verse, And it came to pass at the end of
two full years?
7
 From a text containing ‘yamim’ without mention of years’ conclusions may be
drawn concerning another text containing ‘yamim’ without mention of years’;
8
 but no conclusion
can be drawn here from this verse where there is mention of ‘years’.
 
    Why should it not be thirty days, for there is a verse, but a whole month?
9
 — From a text
mentioning ‘yamim’ without ‘months’, conclusions may be drawn concerning another text
mentioning ‘yamim’ without ‘months’,
10
 but this verse affords no indication since ‘months’ are
mentioned therewith.
 
    Why should not the inference be made from mi-yamim yamimah [‘from days to days’]?
11
  —
Conclusions may be drawn concerning a text containing ‘yamim’. from another’ [text] containing
‘yamim’, but not from one containing ‘yamimah’.
 
    But what is the difference [between ‘yamim’ and ‘yamimah’]? Have not the school of R. Ishmael
taught that in the verses, And the priest shall come again,
12
 Then the priest shall come in,
12
 ‘coming
again’ and ‘coming in’ mean one and the same thing?
13
 — Inference [from nonidentical expressions]

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is permissible where there is no identical expression [on which to base the inference], but where an
identical expression exists, the inference must be drawn from the identical expression.
14
 
    Another reply [to the suggestion that inference be made from ‘yamimah’]: How do we know [with
certainty] that [they went] once every three months? May not the four times per annum have
occurred alternately at intervals of four months and of two months?
15
 
    ‘R. Nehorai said: [Absalom] used to poll every thirty days.’ What is his reason? — [Ordinary]
priests [poll every thirty days]
16
 because [their hair] becomes burdensome, and so here it would
become burdensome [after thirty days].
17
 
    ‘R. Jose said: He polled on the eve of each Sabbath, [etc.]’ What difference then was there
between him and his brothers?
18
 — When a festival occurred in mid-week, his brothers polled, but
he did not do so. Alternatively, his brothers [if they wished] could poll on Friday morning, but he
could not do so until the late afternoon. What were the forty years referred to [by Absalom]?
19
 — R.
Nehorai, citing R. Joshua, said that it means ‘forty years after [the Israelites] had demanded a
king.’
20
 It has been taught: The year in which they demanded a king, was the tenth year [of the
principate of] Samuel the Ramathean.
21
 
    MISHNAH. A NAZIRITE VOW OF UNSPECIFIED DURATION [REMAINS IN FORCE]
THIRTY DAYS.
 
    GEMARA. Whence is this rule derived?-R. Mattena said: The text reads He shall be [yihyeh]
holy,
22
 and the numerical value
23
 of the word yihyeh is thirty.
24
 Bar Pada said: [The duration of the
vow] corresponds to the number of times that parts of the root nazar are found in the Torah,
25
 viz.,
thirty less one.
26
 Why does not R. Mattena derive [the number of days] from the [occurrences of the
various] parts of nazar? — He will tell you that [some of] these are required for teaching special
lessons. [Thus the verse.] He shall abstain [yazzir] from wine and strong drink,
27
 is required to
prohibit wine the drinking of which is a ritual obligation as well as wine the drinking of which is
optional;
28
 [whilst the verse,] Shall clearly utter a vow, the vow of a nazirite to consecrate himself,
29
teaches that one nazirite vow can be superimposed on another.
30
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(1) V. Lev. XXV, 29.
(2) Since the word ‘year’ is used explicitly in the same connection.
(3) V. ‘Ar. 31a, where he infers from this text that redemption cannot take place before the second day, though it may
take place any time within the year.
(4) The Gezerah shawah (v. GIos.).
(5) V. II Sam. XIV, 26.
(6) Hence the comparison must he with yamim in the sense of year, which it also hears in this passage; v. n. 4.
(7) Lit., ‘two years of yamim’, Gen. XLI, 1.
(8) E.g., from Lev. XXV, 29 to II Sam. XIV, 26.
(9) Lit., ‘a month of yamim’, Num. XI, 20.
(10) V. supra p. 14, n. 10.
(11) The reference is to Jephthah's daughter, visited by the Israelitish maidens ‘four days in the year’, i.e., apparently, at
equal intervals of three months. Judg. XI, 40.
(12) Lev. XIV, 39-44. referring to an infected house.
(13)  For purposes of inference, v. Hot. (Sonc. ed.). p. 57. n. II. How much more so then with words so similar as
‘yamim’ and ‘yamimah’!
(14) I.e., since there is another context where the word ‘yamim’ occurs, we learn from that and not from ‘yamimah’.
(15) It is impossible therefore to give an exact value to ‘yamimah’.
(16) V. Ta'an. 17a.
(17) And Absalom polled when his hair became heavy. II Sam. XIV, 26.

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