Nazir 41b — the Talmud in English

And if he wrote

the Merciful One

“his head”

alone

and did not write “his beard,” I would have said

I would say:

Even though

it implies

from “his head

two things

even though the following two laws can be learned from “his head”]:

1.

that a positive commandment comes and overrides a prohibition,

just as the shaving of a leper overrides the prohibition of rounding the head.

2.

And it also implies

further,

that “

rounding the entire head is called rounding” —

and

however,

still

the shaving of a leper, which is

with a razor

specifically,

from where do we know it!?

Therefore the Merciful One wrote “

his beard,”

from which we learn that the shaving of a leper is specifically with a razor, as was explained above in the Gemara.

And the Gemara adds to explain:

And Rabbi Eliezer,

who learns from “his head” that the leper who is a nazirite shaves his head with a razor,

that a positive commandment comes and overrides a prohibition

from this verse the Sages learn that a positive commandment overrides a prohibition —

from where does he derive it

from where does he derive it!?

And we answer:

Rabbi Eliezer derives

that a positive commandment overrides a prohibition

from gedilim

from tzitzit —

for it is taught:

It is stated in the Torah: “

You shall not wear shaatnez

wool and linen together. You shall make for yourself twisted threads on the four corners of the garment with which you cover yourself”; and for this reason the section of tzitzit was juxtaposed to shaatnez —