Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Punctuation makes all the difference in the world TB Nazir 22

 On today's daf TB Nazir 22 Rav Yehuda and Abaye reconcile a contradiction between the Mishnah on daf TB Nazir 20b and a baraita differently. The Gemara sets up the contradiction. “The mishna teaches that if a husband said: I am hereby a nazirite and you, and his wife said: Amen, he can nullify her vow and his remains intact. And the Gemara raises a contradiction to this from a baraita (Tosefta 3:5): With regard to one who said to his wife: I am hereby a nazirite and you, and she said: Amen, they are both bound by their vows; and if she did not answer: Amen, they are both permitted, because he made his vow dependent on her vow. In other words, he meant that he would be a nazirite on the condition that she too accept naziriteship upon herself. This baraita teaches that if she says: Amen, he cannot nullify her vow, which apparently contradicts the ruling of the mishna.” (Sefaria.org translation)

Rav Yehuda takes a more radical approach. He is willing to emend the baraita so that it no longer contradicts the Mishnah. Because the Gemara has no punctuation marks, Abaye resolves the contradiction with an inflection point. He reads the baraita ending with a period. The husband in the baraita is connecting the vows together. Either both of them are nezirim or neither of the are nezirim. On the other hand, the Mishnah ends with a question mark. Here the husband tells the wife that he is going to be a nazir and asks, "What about you?"

Rav Yehuda said: Teach the baraita by emending it so that it reads: He can nullify hers and his remains intact, like the mishna, rather than: They are both bound by their vows. Abaye said: You can even say that the baraita should be read as it teaches, without emending it, as there is a difference between the two cases. The baraita is referring to a case where he said to her in a single clause: I am hereby a nazirite and you, as he makes his vow dependent on her vow. Consequently, if she is not a nazirite, his vow is also canceled. And the mishna is referring to a case where he said to her in the form of a question: I am hereby a nazirite, and what about you? This indicates that he himself has completely accepted his naziriteship, and he is simply asking his wife if she would like to join him. Due to that reason, as he did not link his vow to hers, he may nullify hers and his is intact.” (Sefaria.org translation)

Which solution do you like better?



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