(Se alguém dissesse :) "Eu serei um nazirita de figos secos ou de figos prensados" (aos quais o nazismismo não se aplica), Beth Shammai diz: Ele se torna um nazireu e Beth Hillel diz: ele não se torna um nazireu. [Beth Shammai sustenta que não se pronuncia as coisas em vão, e que quando ele disse: "Eu serei um nazirita", ele quis dizer isso—de modo que, quando continuou: "de figos secos ou figos prensados", ele pretendia se retrair. E mesmo no meio de suas palavras ele não pode se retrair, Beth Shammai sustentando que a hekdesh ("dedicação") em erro permanece hekdesh e não é suscetível de absolvição nem retração. E o mesmo se aplica ao naziritismo, sendo escrito a esse respeito (Números 6: 5): "Santo ele será"—por esse motivo, ele se torna um nazireu. E Beth Hillel sustenta que, uma vez que ele não jurou como vogais, ele não se torna nazirita; não há nazismismo por figos secos ou figos prensados.] R. Yehudah disse: Mesmo quando Beth Shammai disse o que eles eles disseram isso apenas quando ele pensou (em seu coração): "Eles são (proibidos) para mim como uma oferta (é proibido)". [Beth Shammai não difere de Beth Hillel quanto ao fato de ele não se tornar nazireu. Eles diferem apenas quando ele diz: Eu pretendia que os figos fossem (proibidos) como uma oferta (é proibida) para mim. Beth Shammai espera que ele seja encurvado de figos; Beth Hillel não.]
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.
