Commentary for Nazir 9:5

נזיר היה שמואל – and the person who says: “Behold, I am like Samuel or like the son of Elkanah, or like the person who hewed Agag in pieces [in Gilgal]”– is a Nazirite according to the words of Rabbi Nehorai and such is the Halakha.

Introduction The last mishnah of tractate Nazir deals with the question of whether Samuel, the biblical prophet, was a nazirite. It is very typical for tractates of Mishnah to end with words of aggadah, the non-halakhic parts of the rabbinic tradition.

אין מורא אלא של בשר ודם – so that the dominion and fear of man are not upon him.

Samuel was a nazirite, according to the words of Rabbi Nehorai, as it says, “And no razor [morah] shall come upon his head” (I Samuel 1:11). It says with reference to Samson, “And [no] razor [morah]” (Judges 13:5) and it says with reference to Samuel, “And [no] razor [morah]”, just as “razor [morah]” in the case of Samson [teaches that he was] a nazirite, so “razor [morah]” in the case of Samuel [teaches that he was] a nazirite. Rabbi Yose says: but does not “morah” refer to [fear] of flesh and blood? Rabbi Nehorai said to him: But does it not also say, “And Samuel said; ‘How can I go? If Saul will hear it he will kill me’” (I Samuel 16:2) [which shows] that he was afraid of flesh and blood? The case of Samuel is truly puzzling: was he or wasn’t he a nazirite? When Hana prays to God to give her a child, she promises that if she does have a male child, no “morah (razor) shall ever touch his head.” The obvious meaning seems to be that just as Samson’s mother was promised that he would have a child and that her boy was to become a nazirite and “no razor shall touch his head”, so too Samuel’s mother was promising that he would be a nazirite. This is the gist of Rabbi Nehorai’s argument. However, unlike Samson’s mother, Samuel’s mother does not promise the other two nazirite prohibitions, that her son will not become defiled through contact with the dead or eat/drink anything from the vine. Samuel is not subsequently referred to as a nazirite, nor does he seem to act as one. Therefore, Rabbi Yose interprets the Hebrew word “morah” to refer to fear. Samuel’s mother promises that he will not be afraid of anyone. While the word “morah” can mean fear, the simple meaning of the word in this verse seems to obviously be razor. Rabbi Yose interprets it to mean “fear” because it just doesn’t seem that Samuel is a nazirite. Rabbi Nehorai responds by pointing out that this interpretation also does not fit with the facts of Samuel’s life. Samuel did fear Saul, as is evident from the quote. Therefore, the word “morah” must refer to razor, and Samuel must have actually been a nazirite. Interestingly, in a fragmentary scroll of Samuel found in Qumran (the Dead Sea Scrolls), I Samuel 1:22, instead of reading, “[For when he has appeared before the Lord], he must remain there for good”, reads “he will be a nazirite for good, for all his life.” Ben Sira, a second century BCE book, writes that Samuel was a prophetic nazirite (46:3). The Septuagint, the third century BCE translation of the Bible into Greek adds to verse 11 “and he shall not drink wine or strong drink”. Josephus too states that Samuel didn’t drink wine. All of this proves that there was a strong trend in Second Temple Judaism to view Samuel as a nazirite. This view was shared by Rabbi Nehorai in our mishnah. Congratulations! We have finished Nazir. It is a tradition at this point to thank God for helping us to finish learning the tractate and to commit ourselves to going back and relearning it, so that we may not forget it and so that its lessons will stay with us for all of our lives. This last mishnah is an important close to tractate Nazir. We see here that in ancient times when women were grateful to God for having brought them a child, they dedicated their child to God by making the child a nazirite. As an aside, perhaps this is part of why we have seen such a strong connection to women in this tractate. In any case, today people can no longer become nazirites. However, becoming pregnant and having children is still, despite modern technology, very difficult. Although, as a token of gratitude to God we cannot make our children nazirites, we can make a resolution to raise them to a life of Torah and good deeds, to bring them closer to their Jewish roots, to the Jewish people and to the land of Israel. As a father, that is one of the lessons that I learn from this tractate. Congratulations on making it through another tractate. May you have the strength and time to keep on learning more Mishnah! Tomorrow we begin Sota.