Comentario sobre Nazir 8:14

שני נזירים שאמר להם אחד כו' – and they are silent for if they contradict, he is not believed, for one witness in a place where they contradict him is not believed, and our Mishnah speaks as for example that this person, the witness was not with them. But rather, he said, “I saw from afar defilement that was cast between them, that if the witness was with them in their place, it would be a case of uncertainty concerning ritual impurity in the public domain. And uncertain ritual purity in the public domain, in its uncertain state is [spiritually] pure, for uncertainty concerning ritual impurity we derive from the Sotah (i.e., the woman who is suspected of infidelity by her husband), as it is written regarding her (Numbers 5:13): “and she keeps secret the fact that she has defiled herself [without being forced, and there was no witness against her], and they were not other than her, and the person who engaged in sexual relations with her, and her uncertain state is seen as defiled. But whenever that they are more than two [people], even within the house, her uncertain state is seen as pure, and this is like uncertainty regarding ritual impurity in the public domain. Therefore, one must say that the witness was not with them in their place at the time of the uncertainty regarding ritual impurity.

Introduction This extremely long mishnah deals with the case of two nazirites, one of whom was defiled, but it is uncertain which one it was. The problem is that the one who was defiled must bring the sacrifices for defilement and shave, while the one who was not defiled must bring his sacrifices for completing a naziriteship in purity.

וסופרים ל' יום – as for example when both made the vow of Naziriteship together and they took a vow of an undefined period of Naziriteship (i.e., thirty days). And the same law applies if both of them had taken a vow together and delineated their period of Naziriteship for a limited period, for after they had brought the sacrifice for defilement and the sacrifice of purity, they return and count the limited time period for their Naziriteship, and they set aside the sacrifice of spiritual purity.

Two nazirites to whom someone says, “I saw one of you defiled, but I do not know which of you it was,” This section sets up the situation. Evidently, the nazirites themselves do not know which one was clean and which one was not.

וקרבן טומאה ספק – the sin-offering of fowl that comes for uncertain defilement and is not eaten.

[Both] must shave and [together] bring sacrifices for defilement and sacrifices [for completing a naziriteship] in purity, [and one of them] must say, “If I am unclean, the sacrifices for defilement are mine, and the sacrifices in purity are yours, whereas if I am the one who is clean, the sacrifices in purity are mine and the sacrifices for defilement are yours.” And they must then count thirty [more] days and bring sacrifices in purity and [one of them] must say, “If I am the one who was unclean, the sacrifices for defilement were mine, the sacrifices in purity were yours, and these are my sacrifices in purity, whereas if I was the one who was clean, the sacrifices in purity were mine, the sacrifices for defilement were yours, and these are your sacrifices in purity.” Immediately, both nazirites must shave and together they bring sacrifices of defilement and sacrifices of completing the naziriteship in purity (purity sacrifices). One of the two nazirites then declares that if he was the one defiled, the defilement sacrifices are his, but if the other was defiled, then the purity sacrifices are his and the sacrifices of defilement belong to the other. They then must count another thirty days, assuming that this was a naziriteship of unspecified duration. If it was a longer vow, then they must wait the entire period of the vow. This period is to allow the one who was not defiled time to serve out his naziriteship after he had just shaved. Then they make the same statement again. In this way it is certain that the defiled one surely has offered one sacrifice of defilement and one sacrifice of purity.

אלא מביא חטאת עוף – for an uncertain defilement of Naziriteship. And he doesn’t bring the guilt-offering according to the Rabbis who state above that he brought his sin offering and did not bring his guilt-offering, he counts [his period of Naziriteship].

If one of them dies: Rabbi Joshua said that [the other] should request that someone from the marketplace take a nazirite vow together with him, and say: “If I am unclean, you are to be a nazirite immediately, but if I was clean, you are to become a nazirite at the end of thirty days.” They then count thirty days and bring sacrifices for defilement and sacrifices [for completing a naziriteship] in purity and [the first one] says, “If I am the one who was unclean, the sacrifices for defilement are mine and the sacrifices in purity are yours, whereas if I am the one who is clean, the sacrifices in purity are mine and the sacrifices for defilement are [sacrifices offered] in doubt.” They then count [another] thirty days and bring [one set of] the sacrifices in purity and [the first one] says, “If I am the one who was defiled, the sacrifice for defilement [offered previously] was mine and the sacrifice in purity was yours, and this is my sacrifice in purity, whereas if I was the one who was clean, the sacrifice in purity was mine and the sacrifice for defilement [was offered] in doubt and this is your sacrifice in purity.” The situation now gets much more complicated. One of the two nazirities dies and they don’t know whether the clean or unclean one died. Rabbi Joshua suggests a complicated solution. The remaining nazirite finds someone who is not a nazirite and asks him to take a nazirite vow, but not just a regular nazirite vow but rather a vow that will answer the needs of the nazirite who may be unclean. The potentially unclean nazirite then stipulates that if he really is unclean, the new person should be a nazirite immediately, but if he was clean, then the beginning of the other person’s naziriteship should wait thirty days. They then wait the thirty days and then together they bring sacrifices of purity and defilement and again the original nazirite makes a stipulation. If he was the unclean one, then this is his sacrifice of defilement and the sacrifice of purity belongs to the “new” nazirite, who is now completing his naziriteship. If he was the clean nazirite, then the sacrifice of purity is his, and the sacrifice of defilement has the status of a doubtful sacrifice. In practice this means that the sin offering of a bird cannot be eaten, but is nevertheless sacrificed. Note that the other nazirite now begins to serve his own naziriteship, as stated in the original stipulation. Therefore, they must wait another thirty days and then bring a sacrifice of purity. The original doubtfully unclean nazirite now states that if was the unclean one, then the previously brought sacrifice of defilement was his and the current sacrifice of purity belongs to the new nazirite. But, if the original nazirite was clean, the previously brought sacrifice of purity was his, and the previously brought sacrifice of defilement remains doubtful and the current sacrifice of purity is for the new nazirite.

נמצא זה מביא קרבנותיו לחצאים – if he is a pure Nazirite, for the first burnt-offering was obligatory and now, he is offering the sin – offering and the peace-offering.

Ben Zoma said to him: Who will listen to him and take a nazirite vow together with him? Rather he must bring a bird as a sin offering and an animal as a burnt offering and say, “If I was defiled, the sin offering is part of my obligation and the burnt offering is a voluntary offering, whereas if I remained clean, the burnt-offering is part of my obligation and the sin offering is [a sacrifice offered] in doubt.” ‘ He must then count thirty days and bring the sacrifices in purity and say, “If I was defiled, the former burnt offering was a voluntary offering and this is part of my obligation, whereas if I remained clean, the former burnt offering was part of my obligation and this is the voluntary one. And these are the rest of my sacrifices.” Ben Zoma, being a great Sage, has somehow managed to follow this quite complicated system, but nevertheless has a practical problem with its application. How is he going to find a volunteer willing to go through all of this trouble just to get him out of his problem? This does seem very unlikely. Therefore, Ben Zoma comes up with an alternative solution, one that doesn’t involve others. After one of the two doubtful nazirites dies, the living one brings a sin offering of a bird, which is one of the two sacrifices offered for nazirite defilement and a burnt offering of a beast, one of the three offerings upon completion of naziriteship in purity. He then states that if he was the unclean one, then the sin offering should count as his obligatory offering, and the burnt offering is voluntary. Note that the sacrifice of well-being is not brought, for it cannot be offered as a voluntary sacrifice. He continues to state that if he was the clean one, then the burnt offering counts as part of his obligatory sacrifices for the completion of his naziriteship and the sin offering is voluntary. He then waits another thirty days, again assuming that his original nazirite vow was thirty days. If it was longer, he must wait as long as the original vow was. At this point he brings the full set of purity sacrifices (sin, burnt and well-being offerings) and states that if he was the unclean one then his original burnt offering was voluntary and the one that he is currently bringing is the obligatory one. But if he was the clean one, the original burnt offering was obligatory and the current one is voluntary. In any case, he is now bringing the remainder of his sacrifices, meaning the sin offering and the well-being offering.

אבל הודו חכמים לבן זומא – and they did not take into consideration on one who brings his sacrifices in bits and pieces, and the Halakha is according to Ben Zoma.

Rabbi Joshua said: the result is that he brings his sacrifices half at a time! But the Sages agreed with Ben Zoma. Rabbi Joshua now responds that according to Ben Zoma’s system the nazirite may end up bringing his purity sacrifices in two stages. If he was the clean nazirite, then he brought his burnt offering was brought first and the other two were brought thirty days later. Despite this, the Sages agree that Ben Zoma’s system is preferable.

נזיר שהוא טמא בספק ומוחלט בספק – uncertain if he had been defiled by contact with the dead and uncertain if he was a declared leper.

Introduction There is a good deal of background information that will help (some) in understanding this mishnah. The topic of the mishnah is someone who is not only a doubtfully defiled nazirite, but a doubtful metzorah, one who has scale disease (which I will, for convenience sake, call leprosy). The process of the “leper” is as follows. When the priest checks him and decides that he does have the disease, he sits outside of the camp for seven days. Afterwards, he offers two bird sacrifices, shaves and bathes, and then may enter the camp. On the seventh day he again shaves, then goes to the mikveh and on the eighth day brings more sacrifices. He may not eat consecrated food until he brings these last sacrifices. We have already learned two things regarding the leper and the nazirite. First of all, the nazirite is allowed to shave if he has to do so to be purified from leprosy. Second, if a nazirite becomes a leper the days of his leprosy do not count toward his naziriteship, but neither does his becoming a leper overturn his entire naziriteship. Our mishnah also holds that shaving for leprosy cannot at the same time count for shaving for a naziriteship.

אוכל בקדשים אחר ששים יום – but not before then, for someone who is uncertain leper, he or a witness that brings his atonement is forbidden to eat Holy Things but because of being an uncertain impure Nazirite, he is not forbidden from eating Holy Things, for he is not called someone lacking atonement who is forbidden to eat Holy Things other than a person whose defilement comes out upon him from his body. How so? He took the Nazirite [vow] for thirty days, and on the first day, there occurred to him an uncertain defilement through contact with the dead and uncertain leprosy He sprinkles and repeats it and immerses and is purified from his defilement from contact with the dead, as if he came to shave/cut his hair according to the law of an impure Nazirite, or according to the law of a leper who became healed. But, he is not able to shave/cut his hair until the thirty days from the day that he took the vow of Nazirite, lest he is a pure Nazirite, and he is forbidden to shave until the fulfillment of the days of his Naziriteship and until he brings his sacrifices, and after thirty days, he shaves the uncertain shaving of leper. Uncertain shaving of defilement of a Nazirite and uncertainty shaving of someone pure, and he brings two birds according to the law of the shaving for a declared leper. And the sin offering of a fowl that comes on the uncertainty, because of the uncertainty of his being a defiled Nazirite, and the burnt offering of an animal because of his uncertain status as a pure Nazirite, and even though he doesn’t bring the rest of the sacrifices of someone who is a pure person who has shaved, we state that if he shaved on one of the three sacrifices, he has fulfilled his religious duty. And he makes a condition upon it that if he is not a pure Nazirite, that the burnt offering will be a free-will donation, and the law of a declared leper that requires two shavings – one after the completion of his declaration when he became healed from his leprosy. And one after the days of his counting, after he counted seven days from the first shaving, as it is written (Leviticus 14:9): “On the seventh day he shall shave off all of his hair – [of head, beard and eyebrows].”But the one who is an uncertain Nazirite is not able to shave. Therefore, he must wait thirty days of uncertain pure Naziriteship and then he takes a shave of uncertainty for the days of his counting of the leper and the uncertainty of a pure Naziriteship. And he brings a burnt offering of cattle of uncertain Naziriteship in order to shave on the sacrifices and make a condition upon it. And on the day after his shaving, he brings the sacrifice of the leper to permit Holy Things to him. And he brings the sin offering of fowl for the sin-offering of cattle does not come on that which is uncertain. And he doesn’t bring the guilt offering. For the guilt offering does not prevent him from eating Holy Things, and it is found that after sixty [days], he eats Holy Things, for then he brings his atonement of the uncertainty of being declared, but he is still forbidden to drink wine and to defile himself through contact with the dead for perhaps he was a declared leper. But the shaving for a leper does not count for him, neither for the shaving of a pure Nazirite, nor for the shaving of an impure Nazirite, and he still needs two shavings: one for the impure Nazirite and one for the pure Nazirite. And if he was a declared leper, all what he counted for the days of his Naziriteship do not count for him. For the days of his declared [leprosy] and the days of his counting do not count for him. And he needs to count another thirty days and after thirty days, he shaves from being an uncertain impure Nazirite and an uncertain pure Nazirite. And he brings the sin-offering of fowl on being an uncertain impure Nazirite and the burnt offering of cattle for being an uncertain pure Nazirite, in order that he can shave on the sacrifice and makes a condition upon it. But he is still prohibited to drink wine or to defile himself through contact with the dead. For perhaps he was a declared leper and therefore, the first two shavings did not count for him for the sake of his Naziriteship, not for defilement nor for purity, for perhaps he was an impure Nazirite. And the third shaving is the shaving of defilement. Therefore, he is required to count another thirty days of pure Naziriteship, and he brings the sacrifice of a pure Nazirite and makes the condition, and afterwards is permitted to drink wine and to become defiled through contact with the dead. And similarly, if he took a vow of Naziriteship for a year, and something happened to him at the beginning of his year of uncertain defilement through contact with the dead, and uncertain leprosy, he counts a full year and shaves the shaving of uncertain defilement and uncertain purity and uncertain leprosy, ad counts a second year and shaves and brings his atonement and eats Holy Things [if he is a Kohen] and counts another two years prior to his drinking wine and defiling himself through contact with the dead.

A nazirite who was in doubt whether he had been defiled and in doubt whether he had been a confirmed leper, may eat consecrated food after sixty days, and drink wine and come into contact with the dead after one hundred and twenty days, since shaving on account of leprosy overrides [the prohibition against] the shaving of the nazirite only when [the leprosy] is certain, but when it is doubtful it does not override it. The mishnah explains what is to happen in this situation. First of all, he must wait thirty days after he has been purified from having potentially come into contact with the dead and then he may shave his first shaving for leprosy. He could not shave earlier for he may not have been a leper and he may have been a pure nazirite in which case the leprosy shaving would not override the prohibition for a nazirite to shave, as the mishnah states at the end. Then he counts another seven days at which point he normally could shave his second leprosy shaving, but he cannot for the same reason. If he is a pure nazirite, he would need to wait thirty days in between each shaving. His second leprosy shaving is therefore at sixty days. At this point he may eat consecrated food. However, he may still be a nazirite, for if he was really a leper then those days did not count towards his naziriteship and he has not served thirty days after shaving. Therefore he cannot drink wine or come into contact with the dead. Thirty days later he again shaves, but this shaving may be for becoming defiled as a nazirite, if he was indeed unclean, or it may be for completion of his naziriteship. Since he may still not have served a nazirite term in purity, even after this shaving, he waits another thirty days and shaves again, only then is he allowed to drink wine and come into contact with the dead. While this mishnah is difficult, one thing is sure: the barber will be getting a lot of work!