2,891. Drinking Wine All Day Long

Hilchos Nezirus 5:9

If a nazir drinks a reviis of wine and a reviis of vinegar, he is only lashed once; he is not separately liable for each of them because the Torah doesn’t say, “Don’t drink wine” and “Don’t drink vinegar” separately. Rather, Numbers 6:3 says, “He shall not drink vinegar of wine or vinegar of strong drink,” meaning that a nazir may not drink wine or some other beverage into which wine was mixed. Hence, “strong drink,” meaning even if they’ve turned to vinegar. Since the Torah only repeats the term vinegar, which is its own thing, he doesn’t receive lashes for each one separately.

Hilchos Nezirus 5:10

If a nazir drinks wine all day long, even though God considers him liable for each reviis, he is only lashed twice – once for drinking wine and a second time for desecrating his word, as has been discussed. If he was warned not to drink before each reviis but he chose to drink each time, then he is liable for every reviis he drank. Under rabbinic law, a nazir may not hang out with people who are drinking wine. Rather, he must separate from them because they’re an obstacle to him. The Sages (Avodah Zara 59a) said that a nazir should even avoid the area around a vineyard.