Nazir 7 - January 30, 8 Shevat

Study Guide Nazir 7

Today’s daf is sponsored by Jane and David Shapiro in honor of their Skokie daf yomi compatriots: Shira & Norman Eliaser, Nina Black, and Rav Marianne Novak. “You keep us engaged, enthusiastic, and inspired by the daf every day."

The Mishnayot discuss various languages used to accept a nazirite term and how many days one would be a nazir for each of the different languages used. If one says "one large term" or "one short term" or "from here until the end of the world," one is only a nazir for thirty days. Why is the last case only thirty days? The assumption is that one is saying it is so difficult to be a nazir for thirty days that it feels like forever. The Gemara raises a difficulty on this answer from a different Mishna where one says they will be a nazir "from here until a particular place" and the term of the nazir depends on the number of days it takes to get there. Why are the rulings in these two cases different? Two answers are given to answer this question. The Mishna lists several different cases where one said I will be a nazir and then added an additional amount of time. In each case, the person has to keep two periods of being a nazir. Why was it necessary for the Mishna to list all the different cases? The next Mishna lists a case where one said "I will be a nazir for thirty days and one hour." Since one can't be a nazir for an hour, the person is a nazir for thirty-one days. Rav rules that this is only if one did not say thirty days and one day, but thirty and one day as he holds like Rabbi Akiva that any extra word can be used to mean something additional. Rabbi Akiva's position is found in a Mishna in Bava Batra 64a regarding the ownership of a pit and a cistern on a property of a house that one sold to someone else.