Nazir 8:1-2

Nazir 8:1

Let’s say that there were two nazirs and someone said that he saw one of them be rendered unclean but he’s not sure which. In such a case, they both shave and they jointly bring both a sacrifice of ritual uncleanliness and one of cleanliness. One of them says, “If I am unclean, the sacrifice of uncleanliness is for me and the one of cleanliness is for you. If I am clean, the sacrifice of cleanliness is for me and the one of uncleanliness is for you.” They count 30 days, after which they bring a sacrifice of cleanliness. One of them says, “If I was unclean, the sacrifice of uncleanliness was for me, the one of cleanliness was for you, and this is my sacrifice of cleanliness. If I was clean, the sacrifice of cleanliness was for me, the one of uncleanliness was for you, and this is your sacrifice of cleanliness.” If one of these nazirs died before bringing the sacrifices, Rabbi Yehoshua says the survivor asks a third person to undertake nezirus along with him, saying, “If I was unclean, you are a nazir effective immediately; I was clean, you are a nazir effective in 30 days.” They count 30 days, after which they bring the sacrifices of uncleanliness and cleanliness. The original nazir says, “If I am unclean, the sacrifice of uncleanliness is for me and the one of cleanliness is for you. If I am clean, the sacrifice of cleanliness is for me and the one of uncleanliness is being brought out of doubt.” They count 30 days, after which they bring a sacrifice of cleanliness. One of them says, “If I was unclean, the sacrifice of uncleanliness was for me, the one of cleanliness was for you, and this is my sacrifice of cleanliness. If I was clean, the sacrifice of cleanliness was for me, the one of uncleanliness was brought out of doubt, and this is your sacrifice of cleanliness.” Ben Zoma asked who would agree to two nezirus periods – one of them doubtful! – just to help a person in such a doubt. Rather, the surviving nazir should bring a bird for a sin offering and an animal for a burnt offering and say, “If I was unclean, the sin offering is obligatory and the burnt offering is voluntary. If I was clean, the burnt offering is obligatory and the sin offering is being brought out of doubt.” He counts 30 days and brings a sacrifice of cleanliness, saying, “If I was unclean, the first burnt offering was voluntary and this one is obligatory. If I was clean, the first burnt offering was obligatory and this one is voluntary, concluding my sacrifice.” Rabbi Yehoshua objected that doing this means that the nazir brings his sacrifice in installments. Nevertheless, the Sages agreed with Ben Zoma’s course of action.

Nazir 8:2

If a nazir was both doubtfully unclean and doubtfully a metzora, he may eat from sacrifices after 60 days, and drink wine and be rendered unclean for the deceased after 120 days. [He is obligated to purify himself immediately but his ability to shave is complicated by his doubtful status vis-à-vis ritual impurity – see Talmud Nazir 60-61 for a full explanation.] This is because his shaving for tzaraas supersedes shaving for nezirus only when these things are certain but not when these things are doubtful.