Nazir 9:1-2

Nazir 9:1

A non-Jew cannot become a nazir. A woman and a servant can become nazirs. The situation with women is more stringent than it is with servants because one may make his servant end his nezirus against the servant’s will but a man cannot do so to his wife. In another way, the situation with servants is more stringent than it is with women because one may cancel his wife’s vow but not his servant’s vow. If a man cancels his wife’s vow, it is permanently canceled. If he makes his servant stop observing nezirus and he subsequently releases the servant, the servant must complete the nezirus that he started. If the slave ran away from his master, Rabbi Meir says he may not drink wine and Rabbi Yosi says that he may.

Nazir 9:2

Let’s say that a nazir shaved after completing his term of nezirus and he later discovered that is ritually unclean. If it is from a source of ritual impurity that people know about, he must re-do his nezirus. If the source of the impurity was unknown, he does not repeat his nezirus. If he became aware of the impurity before shaving, he must re-do his nezirus regardless of the source of the impurity. Examples: if the nazir went to immerse in a cave and a corpse was found floating there, he is unclean. If the corpse was buried in the cave floor (i.e., hidden) and the nazir went there simply to cool off, he is ritually clean. If he went there to purify himself from corpse impurity, he is unclean. This is because one under a presumption of ritual impurity remains unclean and one under a presumption of ritual purity remains clean.