Talmud for Numbers 6:5

HALAKHAH: “An unspecified nezirut is for thirty days,” etc. Bar Qappara said “ιʼεʼιʼεʼ” is thirty⁹³Num. 6:5: “Until the fulfillment of the days he shall be holy”. Since the verse mentions “the fulfillment of the days”, it must refer to a fixed number; but none is indicated. The number is found by interpreting “he shall be” יהיה in the Alexandrian numbering system using letters as numbers. Since י (ι) = 10, ה (ε) = 5, the sum is 2∙10+2∙5 = 30. (In the Babli, 5a and Sanhedrin 22b, this is attributed to Rav Mattanah; in Sifry Deut. 25 it is a gloss.). Rebbi Samuel bar Rav Naḥman in the name of Rebbi Jonathan: Corresponding to the 29 times that in the Chapter about the nazir in the Torah is written “vow, nazir, to vow as nazir”⁹⁴In Chapter 6, 6 times in v. 21, 4 times in v. 2, 3 each in vv. 5,12,16, 2 each in vv. 13,19, and once in vv. 3,4,6,8,9,20. In the Babli, 5a, this passage is attributed to bar Pada.. Are they not 30⁹⁵If one counts the related word נֶזֶר in v. 7.? Rebbi Yose ben Rebbi Abun said, one has to be removed for its definition⁹⁶Before rules of the nazir can be explained, the notion of nazir has to be defined.. In the opinion of Bar Qappara, if he shaved on the 30th day, he did not fulfill his obligation. In the opinion of Rebbi Joḥanan⁹⁷This should read: “R. Jonathan” since it refers to the statement of R. Samuel bar Nahman. (However, in the Babli, Sanhedrin 22b, R. Samuel bar Naḥman reports a similar statement in the name of R. Joḥanan.), if he shaved on the 30th day, he fulfilled his obligation⁹⁸Since the obligation is 29 days, the 30th day automatically is the day of celebration.. Some want to understand it from here: “To let his head’s hair grow wildly.⁹⁹Num. 6:5.” How much is a hair growth¹⁰⁰The scribe wrote first: “How much is wild hair?” This might be the better reading.? 30 days. Some want to understand it from here: “She shall cry for her father and her mother the days of a month¹⁰¹Deut. 21:13. The argument is based on the doctrine of uniqueness of lexemes, viz., that a word used in the Torah has one and only one meaning: A meaning established in one place can be transferred to any other. Cf. Berakhot 1:1, Note 70..” Since “days” mentioned there are 30, so also “days” mentioned here. Some want to understand it from here: ¹⁰²Num. 6:12.“The prior days shall fall, for his nezirut is impure.” The days which became permitted, which Moses and his court had permitted¹⁰³Moses had forbidden Aaron and his sons to let their hair grow in mourning for Nadab and Abihu (Lev. 10:6), which otherwise they would have done for the customary period of 30 days (cf. Num. 20:29, Deut. 34:8)., and that is no less than 30 days. Some want to understand it from here: “Until the days are fulfilled⁹⁹Num. 6:5.”. How much are full days¹⁰⁴From one full moon to the next.? 30 days. Then if he shaved on the 30th day, he did not fulfill his obligation! Rebbi Isaac bar Eleazar said, “days” are written defectively יָמִם, with a letter י missing¹⁰⁵Therefore, there can be a day missing in the count, as there may be only 29 days from one full moon to the next..

HALAKHAH: “If somebody says, ‘I am a nazir’,” etc. Rebbi Abbahu in the name of Rebbi Joḥanan: Rebbi Eliezer learned from the sufferer from skin disease, for whom we find seven days between shaving and shaving⁴³Cf. Chapter 2:10, Note 143.. Why does he not learn from the impure nazir? The sufferer from skin disease shaves repeatedly; the impure nazir does not shave repeatedly. The rabbis from Caesarea say, they disagree explicitly: Rebbi Joḥanan said, Rebbi Eliezer learned from the sufferer from skin disease; Rebbi Eleazar says, Rebbi Eliezer learned from the impure nazir⁴⁴Who shaves after 7 days, Num. 6:9.. What difference does it make for Rebbi Eliezer whether the vow for nazir was implicit rather than explicit⁴⁵Whether he says “I am a nazir” and it is understood that he will be a nazir for 30 days, or he says “I am a nazir for 30 days”?? If the vow for nazir was implicit, he does not invalidate if he tears his hair out⁴⁶Num. 6:5 spells out first a prohibition, “a shaving knife shall not touch his head”, followed by a positive commandment “he shall let the hair of his head grow wildly.” If the order had been inverted, it would have been clear that only shaving with a knife was forbidden. Now that the commandment of letting the hair grow is separated from the prohibition of using a knife, the majority opinion (Sifry Num. 25; Tosephta 4:3; Halakhah 6:2, Babli 39b) holds that removing any hair is forbidden and the simultaneous removal of any two hairs during the period of nezirut invalidates the nezirut and requires a fresh start. Only on the 30^th day, tearing out a hair has no consequences since Num. 6:5 also states: “until the days are completed he shall be holy,” and on the 30^th day of the implicit vow they are completed., and his seventh day⁴⁷If he became impure by the impurity of the dead, he has to shave on the 7th day itself. is counted for him; if the vow for nazir was explicit⁴⁸Then his days were not yet completed when he became impure., he invalidates if he tears his hair out and his seventh day is not counted for him.

HALAKHAH: “An unspecified nezirut is thirty days,” etc. ¹³³The text of the first two paragraphs of this Halakhah is in rather bad shape. It is written: “A shaving knife shall not pass over his head¹³⁴Num. 6:5.;” therefore, if it did pass, he is guilty¹³⁵He is guilty if it passed: even if the nazir is passive. (In the Babli, 44a, and Sifry Num. 25, the sentence is interpreted to make the shaver equally guilty with the shaved.). “His head’s hair grows wildly;” how much means growing hair? 30 days¹³⁶Chapter 1, Notes 99,100.. {That refers to an impure nazir. A pure nazir? “He has to shave his head on the day be becomes pure.” Why does the verse say: “On the seventh day he shall shave all his hair”? That shows that he shaves a second time.}¹³⁷The text in braces is corrupt as it stands. The proposals for emendations create a new text; it seems better to try to understand the text as it is.
The verses quoted up to this point do not mention an impure nazir; it is possible to read with the classical commentaries: “That refers to a pure nazir. An impure nazir? ‘He has to shave his head on the day be becomes pure’ (Num. 6:9).” This presupposes that a pure nazir who shaves has to start anew; why does an impure nazir, who anyhow has to start anew for a minimum of 30 days, add to his period of nezirut if he tears out a hair?
The following quote, Lev. 14:9, and its accompanying text have nothing to do with the nazir but refer to the convalescent sufferer from skin disease. He has to shave a second time, 7 days after the shaving ordered in v. 8. “He shaves,”¹³⁸Num. 6:9 (the impure nazir), 6:18 (the pure nazir). all, not in part¹³⁹This is a non sequitur. In all other sources, the rule for the nazir is determined in comparison with the recovered sufferer from skin disease (Note 137) and the Levites when inducted into the service of the Tabernacle (Num. 8:7). In both cases, the verse emphasizes the necessity to shave all hair, meaning that no two hairs can be left standing [Babli 32a; Mishnah Nega‘im 14:4; Sifra Meṣora‘ Pereq 2(6)].. From here that if he left two hairs, he [did] nothing. “A shaving knife shall not pass over his head.¹³⁴Num. 6:5.” Not only a shaving knife, from where to treat a cropper and scissors like a shaving knife? The verse says, “shall not pass over his head.” That means not only a shaving knife; all methods of removal are understood. From here that he starts again only for a [shaving knife]¹⁴⁰Part of the last sentence is missing here but can be recovered from the Babli, 39b, and Sifry Num. 25, where a text parallel to that extending the prohibition from a shaving knife to anything that shaves is attributed to R. Joshia; but R. Jonathan states that “the verse speaks of a shaving knife. Therefore, if he tore out, cropped, or went to the barber, he cannot be whipped.”
Since the wording of R. Joshia’s text in the Yerushalmi differs from the Babli/Sifry text, for R. Jonathan’s opinion only the meaning, but not the text, can be recovered..