Nazir - introduction

Question 1

Why is Nazir placed after Nedarim

Answer 1

Because Nezirus is a type of neder

Question 2

What are the three things that a nazir is prohibited to do?

Answer 2

1. Drink wine and eat grapes or their products.
2. Not allowed to cut his/her hair.
3. Must not come into contact with tumas meis.

Question 3

How is nezirus accepted?

Answer 3

Verbally through a declaration, i.e. “I am a nazir.” Other declarations can bring about nezirus.

Question 4

How long is the the standard nezirus?

Answer 4

30 days minimum. This is different from other nedarim that have no minimum time limit.

Question 5

Can nezirus be longer than 30 days?

Answer 5

Yes. It can be longer and also for multiple 30 day terms.

Question 6

Is there permanent nezirus (nazir olam)?

Answer 6

Yes.

Question 7

What is the law regarding haircuts for a permanent nazir (nazir olam)?

This is different from a nazir l’olam (for example he accepted nezirus for 100 years) which is obviously greater than his lifespan.)

Answer 7

A nazir olam may take a haircut at regular intervals.

1. Opinion # 1 is every 12 months.
2. Opinion #2 is every 30 days.
3. Opinion #3 is every week on Friday.

Ref: Nazir 4b-5a.

A long-term nazir (nazir l’olam) is never permitted to cut his hair.

Question 8

What is nazir Shimshon?

Answer 8

A special type of nezirus from birth.

1. May never cut his hair or drink wine.
2. May become tamei for a meis.
3. The nezirus can never be annulled.

Question 9

What happens if a nazir eats or drinks grape products (including skins and seeds), or cuts his hair, or becomes willfully tamei meis?

Answer 9

1. He is punished with Malkus.

Question 10

Is there a difference between violation of nezirus among the three prohibitions (tumas meis, haircuts and eating/drinking grape products)?

Answer 10

Yes.

If the nazir violates tumas meis, he gets Malkus and the prior days of nezirus are voided, so he must begin his nezirus count from the beginning. He may also become tamei for a meis mitzvah.

If the nazir violates hair cutting, whether intentional or accidental, he gets Malkus and the last 30 days of his nezirus is voided (thus if he had accepted nezirus for 60 days and violated hair cutting on day # 50, then only 30 days are voided, rather than all of the days. He may get a haircut if he (the nazir) was also a metzora and needed to shave his hair in order to be purified from the tzara’as.

For a nazir who violated eating/drinking grape products, he get Malkus BUT continues to count his days of nezirus without interruption. The are never any circumstances where a nazir may eat or drink grape products.

Question 11

What is the concluding ritual for the nazir after his term of nezirus ends?

Answer 11

1. Shaving off all of the hair on his head, including his payos. The shaving is done with a razor and no hair must be left. The shaving is done on the day of purification from his nezirus. Known as the Shaving of taharoh.
2. 3 korbanos are brought on the same day before the hair cutting (Rabbi Yehuda, 6:7). R. Elazar says after the chatos is brought, the hair is cut.

a. Korban Chatos - female lamb
b. Korban Olah - lamb
c. Korban Shelomim- a ram (male sheep, age 1-2)

Question 12

What are the hebrew terms for male and female sheep, goats and livestock?

Answer 12

Before age 1:

Sheep: כבש / כבשה lamb. טלה/טליה, שה/שה.

Goat:. שעיר עזים/ שעירת עזים. גדי/דדיה. שה/שה.

Cattle:. עגל/עגלה.

Second year of life:

Sheep:. איל/רחל.

Goats:. שעיר/שעירה.

Cattle:. פר/פרה.

Question 13

Can nezirus be annulled or cancelled (released)?

Answer 13

Yes.

Nezirus can be annulled (hatoroh) by a single sage (chochom) or by three laymen.

Nezirus can be cancelled (haforoh) by the father for his unmarried daughter below age of bogeres (12.5 yo) or husband for his wife (subject to certain conditions).

Question 14

What are the grounds for annulling (hatoroh) or cancelling (haforoh) a vow of nezirus?

Answer 14

Annulment (Hatoroh)

1. It is retroactive.
2. Annulled if vower regrets making the vow (for example took vow in a fit of anger and then cooled off).
3. Annulled if the chochom or lay court finds a ‘pesach’, an opening to reverse the vow. For example, if the vow resulted in an unintended negative consequence, at a later date, that caused regret about making the vow.

Cancellation (Haforoh)

1. Cancelled only after the time of cancellation, not retroactive.
2. Can be cancelled only on the same day that the father or husband hears about the vow.
3. Husband and father (according to most poskim) can only cancel vows that cause her personal suffering or deprivation and those that interfere with the intimate marital relationship or financial hardship (she vows to have no benefit from her father - this affects the husbands ability to benefit financially from his father-in-law).

Question 15

What is retroactive, Hatoroh or Haforoh?

Answer 15

Hatoroh.

Question 16

What is not retroactive, Hatoroh or Haforoh?

Answer 16

Haforoh.

Question 17

Did the sages consider voluntary vows to be advisable?

Answer 17

No. They considered it a sin. The gemoroh compares taking a vow to building a bomoh outside of the Temple and not annulling the vow to bringing a korban on such an illegal altar.

Question 18

What is the procedure for a tamei meis to become tahor?

Answer 18

1. Cease contact with the source of tumah.
2. Be sprinkled with the Mei poroh adumah on days #3 and #7 of his purification.
3. Immerse in a mikvah (even during the day).
4. Wait until night whereupon he becomes tahor.

Question 19

May a nazir cut his beard?

Answer 19

Yes. Only the hair on his head is forbidden to cut.

Ref: Teshuvos HaRashba 1:407.

Question 20

When will the nazir undergo his concluding ritual of shaving his head?

Answer 20

On 2 possible occasions.

1. When he completes his nezirus vow. Shaving of taharoh. 3 korbanos are brought on the same day before the hair cutting. (Rabbi Yehuda, 6:7). R. Elazar says after the chatos is brought, the hair is cut.

a. Korban Chatos - female lamb offering
b. Korban Olah - lamb offering
c. Korban Shelomim- a ram (male sheep, age 1-2)

2. When he became tamei and the preceding days of nezirus were voided. Shaving of tumah.
   3 korbanos are brought on day #8 after the hair cutting on day #7.

a. Korban Chatos - bird offering
b. Korban Olah - bird offering
c. Korban Oshom - a lamb offering

Question 21

OU Torah on cutting the nazirite hair

Answer 21

Mitzvah 377. Take It All Off: The obligation for a nazir to shave his head
Rabbi Jack Abramowitz

…he shall shave his head on the day of his purification… (Numbers 6:9)

When a nazir completes his designated period of time, he does a surprising thing. After letting his hair grow wild, he then shaves it all off when he brings a sacrifice. Shaving his hair off and bringing his offering are collectively one mitzvah. (This is different from the case of the metzora, where shaving is one mitzvah and his sacrifice is another–Mitzvah #174 and Mitzvah #176, respectively.)

There was a special chamber in the Temple for the nazirs to shave their hair. When their sacrifice was cooked by the kohanim, the nazirs would throw their hair into the fire under the pots.

The nazir shaved his own head. If a nazir was completely bald – or if he had no hands – this step was simply omitted as inapplicable. (See Talmud Nazir 46b.)

A famous question is why the nazir has to bring a korban chatas (sin offering). There are two diametrically opposing opinions on the matter. The Ramban (Nachmanides) says that it is to atone for leaving his exalted condition and returning to mundanity. However, the Talmud in Nazir (19a) cites the opinion of Rabbi Elazar HaKapar that the sin of the nazir was in denying himself good things that God created for us to enjoy.

As with letting his hair grow, shaving it was intended to help a person “get over himself.” If anything, shaving it off at the end of the nazir period may even be a bigger statement than letting it grow in the first place. (Seriously, what would be a bigger deal for most people – going a month without a haircut or shaving their head?)

This mitzvah only applied in Temple times, as it included the offering, which can not currently be brought. In the Talmud, it is discussed in tractate Nazir on pages 44b-47a. It is codified in the Mishneh Torah in the eighth chapter of Hilchos Nezirus. This mitzvah is #93 of the 248 positive mitzvos in the Rambam’s Sefer HaMitzvos.