2,935. Forty Years a Nazir

Hilchos Nezirus 10:2

(Continuing the case of a nazir with doubtful tzaraas and doubtful corpse impurity.) The first shaving is made after the end of the first year. The nazir shaves his head, beard and eyebrows, and is purified using cedar, hyssop, and two birds, as is the case with every metzora. If he wasn’t unclean with corpse impurity or a metzora, this is the shaving in purity performed when one completes his nezirus. If he was a metzora in the first year, then this is the first shaving of a metzora. He then waits another year, which is the length of his nezirus, and shaves the second shaving of a metzora. He doesn’t shave after seven days as a metzora usually would because maybe he wasn’t a metzora, but was unclean through corpse impurity. If that’s the case, then during this second year he was a nazir and prohibited to shave. After these two shavings, he has completed the purification of a metzora and is permitted to eat sanctified foods. He waits still another year and then performs a third shaving, in case he was definitely a metzora in the first year and not unclean through corpse impurity. In such a case, the first year didn’t count because these were days when he was definitely a metzora (which are not included in his nezirus). The second year also didn’t count because these were the days he counted as a metzora between his first and second shavings. He therefore spends a third year in nezirus, after which he shaves a third time for his nezirus. This is shaving in purity. Or maybe he was definitely unclean from corpse impurity and also definitely a metzora and, as we have said, a person can’t shave one time for both nezirus and tzaraas. Therefore, the first and second shavings were for tzaraas and the third was for ritual impurity. All three years don’t count for him because the third shaving was for the ritual impurity. Therefore, he must spend a fourth year in nezirus and shave a fourth time. Every time he shaves out of doubt, it is prohibited to benefit from the hair because of the doubt, since it is permitted to benefit from the hair of a nazir with tzaraas.

Hilchos Nezirus 10:3

The same is true if he accepted nezirus for ten years and a question of tzaraas arose in the interim, and a question of corpse impurity arose at the end. In such a case, he may not drink wine for 40 years and he must shave four times, once at the end of every ten years. The first shaving is for his doubtful status as a metzora, the second is for the doubtful days that a metzora counts between shavings, the third is for his doubtful corpse uncleanliness, and the fourth is his shaving in purity.