Resources for Nedarim 3

1.     The גמרא tries to find a case where you can have בל תאחר by נזירות. The גמרא answers that the case is where the person makes a נדר to accept נזירות at some point before they die in which case they are obligated to accept נזירות immediately due to the חשש שמא ימות. There is a big מחלוקת ראשונים as to how to understand this גמרא which gets to the crux of how בל תאחר works. The general בל תאחר we are familiar with is that one who makes a נדר to bring a קרבן נדבה has a מצוה to bring it at the first רגל but only violates בל תאחר after three רגלים have passed (starting from פּסח). By contrast, the גמרא in ר"ה דף ו tells us that if a person makes a נדר to give צדקה that they violate בל תאחר immediately since there are poor people available to give it to all the time. So how do we view נזירות? Another question asked by the רשב"א is why our גמרא brings the חשש שמא ימות. It sounds like the גמרא is explaining the reason for the general איסור of בל תאחר to be שמא ימות. Why do we need to be darshening the טעמא דקרא? His answer is very yesodosdik. He says that one never violates בל תאחר until after three רגלים. This includes צדקה and נזירות. The גמרא is bringing the חשש שמא ימות to explain why he would violate בל תאחר מדרבנן immediately. He goes on to say that by צדקה one does not violate בל תאחר until three רגלים pass even though poor people are standing around since we see by a קרבן that one has three רגלים to bring the קרבן even if he makes the נדר while standing in the מקדש holding a sheep! It must be that the ease or availability of performing the מצוה is not the קובע of the time limit. The גמרא in ר"ה says מיחייב לאלתר which means you must give the צדקה immediately but not that you violate בל תאחר immediately. The רא"ש agrees that one would not violate בל תאחר by נזירות until after three רגלים, but understands the גמרא saying חשש שמא ימות as the reason he violates the לאו. If so, the רשב"א’s question comes back as to why we need that. The קהילת יעקב in סימן ג explains that the רא"ש understood that this person who said “I will be a נזיר before I die” is not like someone who just said they will be a נזיר. It’s a lot closer to saying אהיה נזיר כשארצה in which case בל תאחר would never apply. However, because of the חשש שמא ימות, we view his חיוב as having begun so he would violate בל תאחר after three רגלים. The ר"ן disagrees and says that the purpose of the חשש שמא ימות  is to make us reinterpret his words to be saying that he really meant to say that he promises to accept נזירות immediately. Once the חיוב to be a נזיר is חל, it will cause בל תאחר to be violated immediately. He further disagrees with the רשב"א about צדקה and say the concept of three רגלים is only relevant to קרבנות but any other נדר is violated immediately once the חיוב to do it begins. The גרנ"ט in סימן מ"ח has a חקירה as to how to understand the concept of three רגלים for בל תאחר. Is it that the חיוב to bring the קרבן does not begin in till three רגלים pass or is the חיוב actually חל immediately but one doesn’t violate the לאו until three רגלים. The ר"ן seems to hold that one is חייב immediately but has breathing room of three רגלים by קרבנות. However, the allowance of a delay of three רגלים is only by קרבנות since one has to bring them to ירושלים. The רא"ש would hold there is no חיוב whatsoever to bring before three רגלים as before that one has not really “delayed” all that much. Therefore, in our case, even though because of the ח‌שש מיתה he is חייב immediately, he still has three רגלים to do it.

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