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NAZIR: CHAPTER 8: MISHNAH 1

Two nezirim, to whom someone said, "I saw one of you become unclean, but I do not know which of you" - they shave, and they bring a sacrifice of uncleanness and a sacrifice of cleanness, and he says, "If I am the unclean one - the sacrifice of uncleanness is mine and the sacrifice of cleanness is yours; and if I am the clean one, the sacrifice of cleanness is mine and the sacrifice of uncleanness is yours." And they count thirty days, and they bring a sacrifice of cleanness and he says, "If I am the unclean one - the sacrifice of uncleanness is mine and the sacrifice of cleanness is yours, and this is my sacrifice of cleanness; and if I am the clean one, the sacrifice of cleanness is mine and the sacrifice of uncleanness is yours, and this is your sacrifice of cleanness."

If one of them died - Rabbi Yehoshua said, Let him ask someone from the marketplace to undertake nezirut parallel to him, and he says, "If I was unclean -then you are a nazir immediately; and if I was clean - then you are a nazir after thirty days." And they count thirty days, and they bring a sacrifice of uncleanness and a sacrifice of cleanness, and he says, "If I am the unclean one - the sacrifice of uncleanness is mine and the sacrifice of cleanness is yours; and if I am the clean one-the sacrifice of cleanness is mine, and the sacrifice of uncleanness is out of doubt." And they count thirty days, and they bring a sacrifice of cleanness, and he says, "If I am the unclean one - the sacrifice of uncleanness is mine and the sacrifice of cleanness is yours, and this is my sacrifice of cleanness; and if I am the clean one - the sacrifice of cleanness is mine, and the sacrifice of uncleanness is out of doubt, and this is your sacrifice of cleanness."

Ben Zoma said to him, "And who heeds him to undertake nezirut parallel to him? Rather he brings a bird hatat and an animal olah, and he says, "If I was unclean - the hatat is my obligation, and the olah is voluntary; and if I was clean - the olah is my obligation, and the hatat is out of doubt." And he counts thirty days, and he brings a sacrifice of cleanness, and he says, "If I was unclean - the first olah is voluntary, and this is obligatory; and if I was clean - the first olah is obligatory, and this is voluntary, and this is the rest of my sacrifice." Rabbi Yehoshua said, It results that this one brings his sacrifices piecemeal! But the Sages agreed with Ben Zoma.

Kehati

The halakhah is that if there is a case of questionable uncleanness in the private domain, it is assumed to be unclean, We learn this law from the sotah, regarding whom it is written, "she had been secluded and become defiled" (Num. 5:13), i.e., even though the matter is questionable, she is unclean to her husband. Just as in the case of the sotah, only she and the adulterer, i.e., two people, are involved, so to in any case of doubtful uncleanness in a private domain, e.g., there are not more than two people there, but if there are three or more there, even though they are standing in a private domain, regarding the matter of uncleanness it is considered a public domain, and if questionable uncleanness arose regarding them, it is as a case of questionable uncleanness in a public domain, and any instance of questionable uncleanness in a public domain is assumed to be clean (Gemara, Naz.57a; Rambam, Hil. Nezirut 9:16; Hil. Avot ha Tuma'ot 9:1-2).

This mishnah discusses how the sacrifices must be brought by two nezirim regarding whom a questionable uncleanness arose, e.g., they stood in a private domain, and one of them became unclean, and it is not known which one of them.

In order to understand this mishnah, we must first state that if one said to a nazir, "I saw that you became unclean," and the nazir remains silent, or if he is in doubt regarding the matter, even though there is only one witness here, he is believed, and the nazir must bring a sacrifice of uncleanness in accordance with his statement. If, however, the nazir denies this, and says, "I did not become unclean," the witness is not believed (Bartenura and several other commentators; Gemara, Kidd. 65b), and even if two witnesses testify that he became unclean, and he says, "I did not become unclean," he does not bring a sacrifice on the basis of their statement, for it is possible to interpret his words: "I did not become unclean" - as meaning I am not obligated to bring a sacrifice of uncleanness, because I have already questioned my nezirut; hence he is not refuting the witnesses (Gemara, Ker. 12:2; Rambam, Hil. Nezirut 9:17)

Two nezirim - who had undertaken nezirut together, to whom someone said, "I saw one of you become unclean - the Gemara explains that this refers to a case in which the two nezirim were standing in a private domain, and the other person was not with them, but rather came and said, "I saw from afar an unclean thing that was thrown between you, and one of you is unclean," but I do not know which of you - is unclean"; this is a case of questionable uncleanness in a private domain, in which it is assumed to be unclean (but if the other person had been together with them, it is considered questionable uncleanness in a public domain, as was explained in the introduction to this mishnah). In this case, the nezirim remain silent, or they are in doubt regarding the matter, and the witness is believed, as was stated above; hence each one of the nezirim is questionably unclean and questionably clean; how, then, do they conduct themselves?

They shave - their heads, after they completed the period of their nezirut (see the end of our commentary on this mishnah), and they - jointly - bring a sacrifice of uncleanness - two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for the hatat and one for the olah, and a he-lamb for the asham, and a sacrifice of cleanness - a she-lamb for the hatat, a male-lamb for the olah, and a ram for the shelamim (as was taught above, 6:6-7), and he - one of them, says, "If I am the unclean one - and you are the clean one, the sacrifice of uncleanness is mine and the sacrifice of cleanness is yours; and if I am the clean one - and you are the unclean one, the sacrifice of cleanness is mine and the sacrifice of uncleanness is yours" - and thus the unclean one brings the sacrifice of uncleanness, and the clean one brings the sacrifice of cleanness.

And they count thirty days - i.e., they count anew the period of nezirut; and if they undertook an unspecified nezirut, they count thirty days, and the same applies if they had taken an extended nezirut, they re-count in accordance with the period of time they had undertaken, for the nazir who became unclean brings his sacrifice of uncleanness now, and he is obligated to recount the entire period of his nezirut, and to bring the sacrifices of cleanness at the conclusion of the period of is nezirut; and since it is not known which of them became unclean, each of them re-counts the period of his nezirut and they bring - at the conclusion of their second period of nezirut, a sacrifice of cleanness - jointly, and he - one of them, says - to his fellow,

"If I am - i.e., was, the unclean one, then - the sacrifice of uncleanness - that we have already sacrificed, is - was - mine and the sacrifice of cleanness - that we sacrificed, is - was - yours, and this - the current one, is - will be - my sacrifice of cleanness; and if I am - i.e.,was, the clean one, then - the sacrifice of cleanness - that we sacrificed, is - was, mine and the sacrifice of uncleanness- that we sacrificed, is - was, yours, and this - the current one, is - will be, your sacrifice of cleanness" thus they lose nothing with their sacrifices, rather they are obligated to observe all the laws of nezirut until they do all the things stated above.

If one of them - of these two nezirim, died - before they brought their first sacrifices, what will the living nazir, who is doubtfully unclean, do, and he cannot stipulate regarding his sacrifices? Rabbi Yehoshna said, Let him ask someone from the marketplace to undertake nezirut parallel to him - that he undertake nezirut in accordance with his request, and he says - to him, "If I was unclean - and I am obligated to bring a sacrifice of uncleanness and to recount my period of nezirut, then you are a nazir immediately - so that the sacrifice of cleanness that we will bring after thirty days will be yours; and if I was clean - and I am obligated to bring a sacrifice of cleanness, then you are a nazir after thirty days" - and the one from the marketplace is obligated to count two periods of nezirut because of the doubt.

And they count thirty days - from the day that the person from the marketplace undertook the nezirut vow as he requested, and they bring - jointly - a sacrifice of uncleanness and a sacrifice of cleanness - as was explained above, and he - the one about whom there is a doubt, says - to the one from the marketplace, "If I am the unclean one - and it follows that your period of nezirut took effect during the time of the first condition, and it is completed now, and you are obligated to bring a sacrifice of cleanness, then the sacrifice of uncleanness is mine - will be for me, and the sacrifice of cleanness is yours - will be for you; and if I am the clean one - and your nezirut did not take effect until now, as we had initially stipulated, then the sacrifice of cleanness is mine, and the sacrifice of uncleanness is - will be sacrificed, out of doubt" - i.e., the bird hatat will be sacrificed out of doubt, and will not be eaten, and the bird olah will be sacrificed (if he wants) on the condition that it is a voluntary olah, and he does not bring an asham; for halakhah is that once an unclean nazir brought his hatat he begins to count his period of nezirut in a state of cleanness, and the olah and the asham are not necessary preconditions;

And they count thirty days - anew, a second time, and they bring a sacrifice of cleanness, and he - the one about whom there is a doubt, says - to the one from the marketplace, "If I am the unclean one - and therefore your period of nezirut was in the first thirty days, then - the sacrifice of uncleanness - that we have already sacrificed, is - was - mine and the sacrifice of cleanness - that we sacrificed, is - was - yours - for your period of nezirut, and this - the current one, is my sacrifice of cleanness - for my second period of nezirut, that I counted in a state of cleanness; and if I am - was - the clean one, then - the sacrifice of cleanness -that we had initially offered, is - was - mine - for my previous period of nezirut, and the sacrifice of uncleanness is - was offered, out of doubt, and this - that which we are bringing now, is - will be - your sacrifice of cleanness" - for your period of nezirut that you have completed now.

Ben Zoma said to him - to Rabbi Yehoshua, "And who heeds him to undertake nezirut parallel to him - to be a nazir for two periods, and only one period will be counted for him, out of doubt, as was taught above? He certainly will not find anyone who will agree to this; will he never be able to correct his situation?

Rather - in any case in which one of them died, he - the other one, brings a bird hatat - as the sacrifice for questionable uncleanness of a nazir, and an animal olah - which is one of the sacrifices of cleanness, in order to perform the tiglahat of cleanness, and he says, "If I was unclean - and I am obligated to bring a sacrifice of uncleanness, then - the hatat is my obligation, and the olah is voluntary - and this is the reason why he brings only an animal for the olah, since only the olah may be offered as a voluntary sacrifice (whereas the nazir's shelamim requires bread and a cooked shoulder, and such shelamim may not be offered as a voluntary sacrifice - Tosafot); and if I was clean - the olah is my obligation - for the tiglahat of cleanness, and I still am obligated to bring the hatat and the shelamim, and the hatat is - to be offered - out of doubt" - as was explained above.

And he counts thirty days - if he had initially undertaken an unspecified period of nezirut, for perhaps he was the one who became unclean; and the same applies if he had undertaken an extended nezirut, that he re-counts in accordance with the period he had undertaken in his nezirut, and he brings a sacrifice of cleanness - i.e., all three sacrifices: hatat, olah, and shelamim, and he says, "If I was unclean - and the bird hatat that I offered was part of my obligation, the first olah - that I brought, is - was - voluntary - as I stipulated, and this - the olah that I bring now with the other sacrifices, is obligatory - an obligatory olah, for the sacrifice for my nezirut, as the hatat and the shelamim; and if I was clean - the first olah - the animal for an olah that I have already brought, is - was - obligatory - an obligatory olah, and this - the olah that I bring now, is voluntary - a voluntary olah, and this - sacrifice of hatat and shelamim, is the rest of my sacrifice" - for my first period of nezirut, for which I already had brought the olah at its proper time; hence all the sacrifices, except for the asham, brought for uncleanness, are offered, and we have already mentioned that the asham does not constitute a necessary precondition. Rabbi Yehoshua said, It results - from the words of Ben Zoma, that this one brings his sacrifices piecemeal - for if he were a clean nazir, the olah that he had brought initially would be credited to him for his obligation, and now, after thirty days, he brings the hatat and the shelamim! But the Sages agreed with Ben Zoma - that he may bring his sacrifices in two parts.

The Gemara asks regarding Rabbi Yehoshua's statement, what is wrong if he brings his sacrifices in two parts? The Gemara replies, "Rabbi Yehoshua stated (his reply) only to sharpen the pupils through it." Rashi interprets this as follows: "Rabbi Yehoshua knew that his response was of no import, and he spoke thus only to sharpen the pupils, that they would infer a kal va~horner by themselves: If Rabbi Yehoshua, who knows by himself that his words are of no import, made a response which changes nothing, it is certainly the case that any other person may respond to the words of his teacher; and even if he knows that his words are of no import and that the other students will ridicule him, he should not refrain from asking all he wants."

Regarding that which was taught in our mishnah, "they shave," the Gemara asks, why do they shave? For one of them is not unclean, and as a consequence he will transgress the prohibition, "You shall not round the corners of your heads" (Lev. 19:27), i.e., this shaving is not effective for him for his shaving of cleanness, since a clean nazir shaves only after a sacrifice; and they shave before bringing the sacrifices, because the shaving of one of them is the shaving of uncleanness (Tiferet Yisrael), and if so, then this constitutes a transgression of the prohibition of rounding the corners of the head. The Gemara learns from this that our mishnah refers to a case in which these two nezirirn were two women or two minors (whose fathers had undertaken nezirut for them), who are not prohibited from rounding the corners of the head. Harneiri explains that the Gemara does not ask regarding the first shaving, since the first shaving is permitted in either case: either because of the tiglahat of uncleanness, or because of the tiglahat of cleanness; the question is raised in regard to the second shaving. Rambam, however, writes: "And one of the two does not perform the tiglahat of uncleanness unless they were minors or women, for these do not round the corners of their heads out of doubt" (Hil. Nezirut 9:15).

NAZIR: CHAPTER 8: MISHNAH 2

If a nazir was doubtfully unclean and doubtfully muhalat, he may eat sacrificial foods after sixty days, and he may drink wine and become unclean by contact with the dead after one hundred and twenty days, for the tiglahat of the affliction overrides the tiglahat of the nazir when it is certain, but when it is doubtful - it does not override.

Kehati

A metzora who was declared unclean is called a metzora muhalat (a confirmed metzora), and he lives outside the camp until he is healed. The days that he lives outside the camp are called the "days of his completion," i.e., the days in which he is a complete metzora; after he has been healed, he brings "two living clean birds," and cleanses himself, as is specified: "and he shall shave off all his hair, and bathe himself in water, and he shall be clean; and after that he may come into the camp... and he should live outside his tent seven days, and on the seventh day he should shave all his hair" (Lev. 14:8f.). We learn from this verse that the metzora shaves twice; and the period between the two shavings are called "the days of his counting," during which he counts the seven days of his cleanness. After his second shaving, on the seventh day of his counting, he immerses himself, and on the eighth day - after having immersed himself the previous day and the sun had set on him - he brings sacrifices. He may not eat of sacrificial food until he brings his sacrifices, for a metzora is one of those who are "lacking atonement," i.e., they bring their sacrifices, not for a transgression, but rather to complete their process of cleansing, so that they may eat sacrificial food (Ker. chap.2).

This is not so regarding the nazir who became unclean, for he is not included in the category of "lacking atonement," and after he was sprinkled upon on the third day and on the seventh day he is permitted sacrificial food, even though he has not yet brought his sacrifices. It has already been taught (7:3, above) that if a nazir became a metzora during the period of his nezirut, the days of his completion and the days of his counting are not credited to his days of nezirut, but he does not forfeit the previous days, and he is not obligated to perform the tiglahat of uncleanness. It was also taught (6:5, above) that the prohibition for a nazir to shave is overridden by the shaving of the metzora, which is an obligatory shaving. To what case does this refer? To the case of the definite metzora, but in the case of a doubtful metzora, questionable tzara'at does not override nezirut.

This mishnah deals with the case of a nazir who is doubtfully unclean because a corpse related uncleanness and also a questionable metzora. In order to understand this mishnah, we must mention that one tiglahat is not credited for both the nezirut and tzara'at, because the tiglahat of the metzora precedes that of nezirut.

If a nazir - who had undertaken an unspecified nezirut, was doubtfully unclean and doubtfully muhalat - i.e., he had two doubts: whether he became unclean because of a corpse related uncleanness during the period of his nezirut, and also a doubt whether he is a metzora muhalat, and now he has been healed of his tzara'at, he may eat of sacrificial foods after sixty days - for indeed he is required to cleanse himself immediately because of the doubtful corpse related uncleanness, but he is not permitted to shave immediately, until completing thirty days of his nezirut, because perhaps he is a clean nazir, and questionable tzara'at does not override nezirut, as was mentioned above. And when the thirty days of nezirut are completed, and he shaves, there are three doubts regarding this shaving:

(1) perhaps he was a clean nazir, and this is the shaving of cleanness; (2) perhaps he was a metzora muhalat, in which case this is his tiglahat after the "days of his completion", in which case he must count seven days, which are called the "days of his counting," and shave again on the seventh day, and cleanse himself on the same day by immersion and wait till sunset, and bring his sacrifices on the eighth day, in order to be permitted to eat sacrificial foods; (3) perhaps he was not a metzora, but rather unclean because of corpse related uncleanness, in which case this is the tiglahat of uncleanness, and then he is obligated to recount thirty days for nezirut in a state of cleanness. He therefore recounts an additional thirty days, and shaves a second time. Hence if he was a metzora, this is his second tiglahat, and after he immersed himself and the sun has set, he brings on the following day metzora sacrifice and is permitted to eat sacrificial foods.

This is the meaning of the mishnah, "he may eat sacrificial food~ after sixty days," e.g., the above-mentioned doubts arose on the first day of his nezirut; and he is obligated to count thirty days in case he is a clean nazir, and to count an additional thirty days, in case it was a corpse related uncleanness, as explained above. But he is still prohibited from drinking wine and from becoming unclean by contact with a corpse, because he requires an additional two shavings, out of doubt:

(1) perhaps he was both corpse related unclean and a metzora muhalat, and the tiglahat of the tzara'at is not credited to him for the tiglahat of uncleanness, as was mentioned in the introduction to this mishnah, and he is required to shave a third time, for the tiglahat of uncleanness out of doubt; but perhaps he was not unclean because of corpse related uncleanness, but rather a metzora muhalat, then the first two shavings were on account of his tzara'at, and he must count thirty days for his nezirut in a state of cleanness, because the days of his completion and the days of his counting are not credited to the period of his nezirut. He therefore counts an additional thirty days, and shaves a third time, which is possibly a tiglahat of uncleanness, or possibly a tiglahat of cleanness; (2) perhaps he was both unclean because a corpse related uncleanness and a metzora muhalat, and the third tiglahat was the tiglahat of uncleanness, and he must count an additional thirty days for his nezirut in a state of cleanness, and then he performs the tiglahat of cleanness; hence this nazir leaves his status of nezirut,

and he may drink wine and become unclean by contact with the dead after one hundred and twenty days - i.e., after he shaves four times, each time at the conclusion of a thirty-day period: two because of the doubt regarding his tzara'at, one because of the doubt regarding the tiglahat of uncleanness, and one because of the doubt regarding the tiglahat of cleanness (see Bartenura and other commentators regarding the sacrifices the nazir is obligated to bring over the doubt regarding each tiglahat); the reason for all these shavings, and for concluding his period of nezirut after one hundred and twenty days, is - for the tiglahat of the affliction overrides the tiglahat of the nazir when it is certain - if a nazir is a definite metzora, he performs the tiglahat of the affliction within the period of his nezirut, i.e., after he is healed of his tzara'at he immediately performs the first tiglahat for his tzara'at, and after seven days he performs the second tiglahat, and after this he completes counting his nezirut, but when it is doubtful - it does not override - the nazir's prohibition of shaving, for questionable tzara'at does not override nezirut.

We have explained this mishnah as referring to an unspecified nezirut; the same applies to an extended nezirut, which was for a specified period of time, e.g., if a person undertook nezirut for a year, and on the first day of his nezirut, doubts arose regarding both a corpse related uncleanness and tzara'at, he is prohibited from eating sacrificial foods for two years, i.e., after he shaves twice for the questionable tzara'at, the first time at the end of the first year, and the second time at the end of the second year, and he is prohibited from drinking wine or from becoming unclean by contact with a corpse for four years, for the reason which was explained in the mishnah.

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