Why grape leaves are forbidden or permitted depending on how you interpret the Torah TB Nazir 33, 34, and 35

When I was a freshman at Teachers Institute now known as List College at JTS, I had to take a coordinated curriculum course second semester on the Second Temple period. Half of the time we studied the history of the second Temple period and the other half of the time we studied an introduction to rabbinic literature. These dappim TB Nazir 33, 34, and 35 serve as a great review for me of something I learned so long ago.

These dappim describe two different methodologies to interpret the Torah. The first is amplifications and restrictions (ribuyai ume’ut-רִבּוּיֵי וּמִיעוּט) and the second is generalization, detail, generalization (klal, ufrat, uklal-כְּלָל וּפְרָט וּכְלָלשּ). Before I explain each method, let me share with you some background information from my friend and colleague Dr. Burt Visotzky’s book Aphrodite and the Rabbis: How the Jews adapted Roman Culture to Create Judaism as We Know It. “My teacher Prof. Saul Lieberman (whom I studied with in my last year of rabbinical school) wrote back in the 1940s and 50s about the rabbis’ regular use of Greco-Roman interpretive strategies in their Midrash (Scriptural interpretation). He lists a broad range of Greek terms and styles that the rabbis shared. In some instances Prof. Lieberman even suggests that the rabbis adopted these methods directly from the Greeks and Romans. When the Alexandrians read Homer and were stumped by a difficult term, they often used another verse of the Iliad or Odyssey to unlock the opaque first verse. Lieberman calls this interpreting Scripture by Scripture.” (Page 99) The traditional prayer book lists before the introductory Psalms in the morning service Rabbi Yishmael’s thirteen methods through the Torah is interpreted of which one is generalization, detail, generalization (klal, ufrat, uklal-כְּלָל וּפְרָט וּכְלָלשּ).

The Mishnah on daf 34a teaches us the three prohibitions a nazir accepts upon himself. “Three types of actions are prohibited for a nazirite: The contraction of ritual impurity from a corpse, and the shaving of one’s hair, and eating or drinking any substances that emerge from the vine.” (Sefaria.org translation) The Gemara cites how Rabbi Elazar and the rabbis disagree how to interpret the verses about the prohibition of eating or drinking grape products.

Rabbi Elazar uses the method of amplifications and restrictions (ribuyai ume’ut-רִבּוּיֵי וּמִיעוּט) when interpreting the verses “they (the nazir-gg) shall abstain from wine and any other intoxicant;… they may not eat anything that is obtained from the grapevine, even seeds or skin.” (Numbers 6:3-4) “shall abstain from wine and any other intoxicant” is the me’ut and “they may not eat anything that is obtained from the grapevine, even seeds or skin.” is the rebuyai. “The Gemara elaborates: In this manner, the Torah restricts and amplifies, which, according to the principles of exegesis, amplifies and includes virtually all substances. What does it amplify and include? It amplifies and includes all matters and substances that come from the vine (including the great leaves and the tendrils -gg). What does it restrict? After all, the phrase “He shall abstain from wine and strong drink” must be excluding something. According to this interpretation, the verse restricts only one part of a vine, the branches. A nazirite who eats the branches of the vine has not committed a transgression.” (Sefaris.org translation)

The rabbis use the method of generalization, detail, generalization (klal, ufrat, uklal-כְּלָל וּפְרָט וּכְלָלשּ). “they (the nazir-gg) shall abstain from wine and any other intoxicant; is the detail. “they may not eat anything that is obtained from the grapevine,” is the generalization. “even seeds or skin.” is a detail. “According to this exegetical method, you may deduce that the verse is referring only to items similar to the detail: Just as the items mentioned in the detail are clearly defined as a fruit or fruit waste, i.e., grape seeds or skins, so too, everything forbidden by the generalization is a fruit or fruit waste, but not leaves or tendrils, as maintained by Rabbi Elazar.” (Sefaria.org translation)

Depending on whose interpretation is employed will determine what part of the grape vine is prohibited for the nazir. The Gemara adds that our dappim are the original source where the rabbis learn the principle of generalization, detail, generalization (klal, ufrat, uklal-כְּלָל וּפְרָט וּכְלָלשּ). “Wherever you find only a detail and a generalization, you cannot broaden it and learn that the generalization is limited to be like the detail, by saying that the generalization merely clarifies the previous detail. Rather, the generalization becomes added to the detail so that it includes all matters, even those dissimilar to the detail, until the verse specifies and adds another detail after the generalization, in the manner that it specified with regard to a nazirite” (Sefaris.org translation)