Komentarz do Nazir 8:1

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.