How you vow makes all the difference how long you become a nazir TB Nazir 7

Today’s daf TB Nazir 7 makes a distinction between three different kinds of nazarite vows and how each impacts our basic understanding that the minimum amount of time a person becomes a nazir is 30 days.

The first type of vow expresses the person’s attitude concerning becoming a nazir as opposed to giving a quantifiable number of days of nezirut. One example of the Mishnah provides is “even if one said: I am hereby a nazirite from now until the end of the world…he is a nazirite for thirty days.” (Sefaria.org translation) This is not a quantifiable number of days since it is an attitude; consequently, the person is only on the hook to be a nazir for 30 days.

The second type of vow includes a quantifiable number of days. “We learned in the mishna (8a): If one says: I am hereby a nazirite from here until such and such a place, one estimates how many days it takes to walk from here until such and such a place. If it is a distance of less than thirty days, he is a nazirite for thirty days, since this is the minimum term of naziriteship. And if not, i.e., if it takes more than thirty days to walk that distance, he is a nazirite in accordance with the number of days it takes to walk to that place. But here too, in that mishna, say that the individual intends to accept only a thirty-day term of naziriteship, and he means to say: This matter of naziriteship is as lengthy for me as the time it would take me to walk from here until such and such a place. Rava said: That mishna is referring to one who had already set out on the way, so that it is apparent that his intention is to be a nazirite until he reaches his destination.” (Sefaria.org translation) In this case, we know exactly how many days it takes to walk from point X to point Y and that is exactly how many days the person is vowing to be a nazir. If the trip is shorter than 30 days, he is still obligated to observe the minimum amount of 30 days of nezirut.

The Rosh explains why a person makes such a vow. We have a concept that observing a mitzvah protects a person on a trip. Today we make a person traveling our mitzvah agent by giving him some money, tzedakkah, to donate when he arrives at his destination. The Rosh explains that traveling long distances is dangerous and the person makes a vow to be a nazir for the duration of the trip as “traveling insurance.”

The third type of vow includes a quantity, but an unquantifiable number. “If one says: I am hereby a nazirite like the dust of the earth, or: Like the hair of my head, or: Like the sand of the sea, he is a nazirite forever, as it is understood that he accepted upon himself terms of naziriteship in accordance with the number of his hairs, or grains of dust, or sand, and he shaves once every thirty days…” (Sefaria.org translation) Although there is a finite number of the dust of the earth, hairs on a person’s head, or the sand of the sea, a human being would never be able to quantify them. He becomes a forever nazir (נָזִיר לְעוֹלָם). He has one term of nezirut after another term of nezirut; consequently, he cuts his hair every 30 days. A permanent nazir (נְזִיר עוֹלָם) as we learned yesterday may only cut his hair once every 12 months.