(Si uno dijo :) "Seré un nazareo de higos secos o de higos prensados" (a lo que no se aplica el naziritismo), Beth Shammai dice: se convierte en nazareo, y Beth Hillel dice: no se convierte en nazareo. [Beth Shammai sostiene que uno no pronuncia cosas en vano, y que cuando dijo: "Seré un nazareo", lo dijo en serio.—de modo que cuando continuó: "de higos secos o de higos prensados", quiso retractarse. E incluso en medio de sus palabras no puede retractarse, Beth Shammai sostiene que hekdesh ("dedicación") por error sigue siendo hekdesh, y no es susceptible de absolución ni retracción. Y lo mismo se aplica al naziritismo, que está escrito al respecto (Números 6: 5): "Santo será"—por lo que se convierte en nazareo. Y Beth Hillel sostiene que, dado que no votó a la manera de los votos, no se convierte en nazareo, ya que no existe el naziritismo por higos secos o higos prensados.] R. Yehudah dijo: Incluso cuando Beth Shammai dijo lo que ellos decían. lo hicieron, lo dijeron solo cuando pensó (en su corazón): "Están (prohibidos) para mí como una ofrenda (está prohibida)". [Beth Shammai no difiere con Beth Hillel en cuanto a que no se haya convertido en nazareo. Solo difieren cuando dice: tenía la intención de que los higos fueran (prohibidos) como una ofrenda (está prohibida) para mí. Beth Shammai lo sostiene para que lo hundan de higos; Beth Hillel no.]
Ikar Tosafot Yom Tov on Mishnah Nazir
In the Gemara: And if you will ask: Let it say, "Beit Hillel holds that one can ask [to repeal a vow] of sanctification;" one can answer, it is because - according to Beit Hillel - while it is still true that he is not a Nazerite from wine [as a result of his vow], nonetheless, let him be in a vow [against] eating cakes of figs. That is why it states that he is completely exempt - that he is not volunteering in the way of those that make an oath of their own volition. Since, if he came to make a vow [about] fig cakes, he should have used the term, konam (an introductory expression indicating a vow not to do or use something) which is the [standard] way of those that make vows. (Tosafot)
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Bartenura on Mishnah Nazir
הריני נזיר מן הגרוגרות ומן הדבילה ב"ש אומרים נזיר – since the School of Shammai holds that a person does not utter his words for no purpose (i.e., he must have meant something – see Talmud Arakhin 5a) and when he said, “I will be a Nazirite,” he said it with the intention that he will be a Nazirite, and when he retracted and said, “from the dry figs and from the cakes of pressed figs,” he retracted for he needed to retract, and even as much time as needed for an utterance, he would not be able to retract, they held that something dedicated to the Temple by error is called sanctified, and no question or retraction belongs to it. And the same law applies regarding a Nazirite, as it is written concerning him (Numbers 6:5): “it shall remain consecrated,” therefore, he is a Naziite. But the School of Hillel holds that since he did not make the vow in the manner of those who vow, he is not a Nazirite, for there is no Naziriteship from dry figs and from the cakes of pressed figs.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Nazir
Introduction
Our mishnah deals with a person who says that he is nazirite but says also that he will abstain from figs, which are normally permitted to a nazirite. The Talmud understands the tannaitic dispute on this debate to be about a larger issue of how to interpret self-contradictory language. When a person makes a statement where the two parts of his statement contradict one another, how are we to interpret his statement.
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Ikar Tosafot Yom Tov on Mishnah Nazir
And if you will ask: And behold, he said, "Nazerite;" and [so] how could he be in [standard, non-Nazerite] vow; one can answer that, 'Nazerite' is a term of separation, as if he said: "behold I am separating from cakes of figs." And even though Rabbi Yehuda holds that he said, "a sacrifice" without [the letter,] kaf, (which means 'like'), he would not be taking a vow on a sacrifice, [since] when he says, "upon me," he doesn't need the kaf (to indicate that it is only like a sacrifice and not a sacrifice itself).
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English Explanation of Mishnah Nazir
[If one says,] “Behold I am a nazirite [and abstain] from dried figs and pressed figs”: Beth Shammai says: he is an [ordinary] nazirite. Beth Hillel says: he is not a nazirite. Rabbi Judah said: even though Beth Shammai did say [that his formula is effective] they meant only one who says, “They are [forbidden] to me, as is a sacrifice.” Beth Shammai takes seriously the first part of this person’s statement “Behold I am a nazirite”, and therefore holds that this person has indeed taken a nazirite vow. Regarding the second half of his statement “and abstain from dried figs and pressed figs”, it is as if he tried to change his mind after he had already taken the vow. Beth Shammai considers this change of mind to be irrelevant and therefore he is a nazir. Beth Hillel considers his whole statement to be one integral statement, the end being inseparable from the beginning. Since figs are permitted to nazirites, he has not made a valid nazirite vow. Rabbi Judah reinterprets Beth Shammai’s statement. Beth Shammai does not hold that he is an ordinary nazirite. Rather, they meant that if he thought to himself that this was a valid way of prohibiting figs, just as saying “they are forbidden to me, as is a sacrifice”, is a valid way of prohibiting figs, then the prohibition works, and he is forbidden to eat figs. However, Beth Shammai would agree with Beth Hillel that if he intended by these words to take a regular nazirite vow, nothing is prohibited to him. He is neither a nazirite, nor prohibited from eating figs.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Nazir
אמר רבי יהודה אף כשאמרו ב"ש לא אמרו אלא באומר הרי עלי קרבן – for the Schools of Shammai and Hillel did not dispute that with regard to Naziriteship, that he was not Nazirite, they did not dispute other than with someone who says in my heart that the dry figs are to me as a Korban/sacrifice. The School of Shammai holds that this was a vow from eating dry figs and the School of Hillel holds that this was not a vow.
