פירוש על נזיר 1:5

אם אמר אחת גדולה נדרתי – One [period of] Naziriteship I accepted and it appeared to me as large as jugful, he is a Nazirite for thirty days.

Introduction This mishnah introduces a situation in which it is unclear what type of nazirite vow a person took and in order to clarify the matter, they ask him to explain what his intention was. As we shall see, even after he explains his intention it is still somewhat unclear what he really meant, and hence we are forced to interpret his words.

But if he said, “my vow is unspecified and I did not have in my heart other than how the Sages will judge my language,” this is a Nazirite for all of his days, and he shaves every twelve months.

[If he says,] “Behold, I am a nazirite as the capacity of this house”, or “as the capacity of this basket,” we check him. If he says “I vowed one long period of naziriteship”, he becomes a nazirite for thirty days. But if he says “I vowed without specification”, we regard the basket as though it were full of mustard seed, and he becomes a nazirite for life. It is unclear whether this person has taken one long, unspecified vow of naziriteship, as if he said “Behold, I am a nazirite from here until the end of the world” (see mishnah 3) or whether he intended to give a set time for his naziriteship, that it should be as long as the number of the things in a house or in a basket. In order to clarify, he is checked and the court asks him what his intention was. If he says that his intention was to vow one long period of naziriteship, he is treated like the person who stated “Behold, I am a nazirite from here until the end of the world”, and he is a nazirite for only thirty days. If however, he says he did not specify how long he wanted to be a nazirite, or that he doesn’t know what he really meant, it is treated as though he said that he wants to be a nazirite for as long as the things found in this basket. This would return us to the situation in the beginning of yesterday’s mishnah. According to Rabbi, he would be a nazirite forever, and he does not shave every thirty days. According to the majority opinion, he would serve an infinite number of naziriteships, shaving in between each one.