Nazir 44b — the Talmud in English

Mishna:

A. It is stated in the passage concerning a nazirite: “And if a dead person dies upon him suddenly, unexpectedly, and he becomes impure, the head of his nazirite consecration; he shall shave his head on the day of his purification [on the day on which he was sprinkled with the water of purification. And afterward], on the seventh day, he shall shave it.”

“And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the koen, to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and the koen shall prepare one as a sin-offering and one as a burnt-offering, and he shall atone for him for what he sinned concerning the person.”

“And he shall consecrate his head on that day. And he shall consecrate himself to the Lord for the days of his nazirite consecration. And he shall bring a year-old lamb as a guilt-offering, and the first days shall fall away,” and so forth.

B. It is stated in the passage concerning the purification of the leper [Leviticus 14:9]: “And it shall be on the seventh day [of the days of his counting]: he shall shave all his hair, his head and his beard and his eyebrows, and all his hair he shall shave.”

“And he shall launder his garments [after his shaving], and he shall bathe his flesh in water and become pure. And on the eighth day he shall take two unblemished male sheep.”

How is the impurity shaving

performed?

If

the nazirite

is sprinkled,

receiving the sprinkling of the ashes-water of the red cow,

on the third and on the seventh,

as is the law of purification from corpse impurity, and immerses on the seventh,

and shaves on the seventh, and brings his offerings on the eighth.

And if

he delayed his shaving and

shaved on the eighth,

he

brings his offerings

even

on that very day,

and he need not wait until the day after the shaving, as he does when he shaves on the seventh,

the words of Rabbi Akiva.

Rabbi Tarfon said to

Rabbi Akiva: “And what,”

is the difference between this one

the nazirite

and the leper,

concerning whom the Torah said: “And it shall be on the seventh day [of his counting]: he shall shave all his hair. And on the eighth day he shall take two male sheep”—

and if he delayed his shaving until the eighth day, he brings his offerings on the day after his shaving, and not on that very day!?

Rabbi Akiva said

to Rabbi Tarfon:

The reason for the law that the leper brings his offerings on the day after his shaving, even when it was delayed until the eighth day, is not because of the shaving itself, but because of the immersion, which necessarily was also delayed until the eighth day, since the leper’s immersion is only after the shaving.

This is not so with a nazirite, whose immersion precedes his shaving. And what is the reason for the distinction between them?

Because

this one,

the nazirite,

his purification depends on his days [

on the sprinkling on the third and seventh] alone, and not on his shaving. Therefore, he can immerse immediately, even though he will shave only on the following day.

And

if

the leper, his purification depends on his shaving,

and therefore, until he shaves, he does not immerse. And since the leper’s immersion was on the eighth day, he requires sunset after the immersion; and until his sun has set, the impurity of a “tevul yom” remains upon him,

and he does not bring an offering

for his leprosy

unless he was “

purified by sunset,” when the sun set in the evening, at the end of the day on which he immersed, and not while he is still a “tevul yom”; consequently, he brings his offerings only on the ninth day.

Gemara: The Gemara considers a question:

Gemara:

The Gemara is uncertain:

did he accept it from him,

that is, did Rabbi Tarfon accept Rabbi Akiva’s words concerning distinguishing between a nazirite and a leper?

Or not,

did Rabbi Tarfon not accept Rabbi Akiva’s reason, and does he still disagree with him, holding that even a nazirite who shaved on the eighth brings his offerings only on the following day, on the ninth, because bringing the offerings is always on the day after the shaving?

Come and hear

a proof that he did not accept it from him, from this

as Hillel taught

in a beraita:

If he shaved

the nazirite

on the eighth, he brings his offerings on the ninth.

—that Rabbi Tarfon accepted Rabbi Akiva’s view—then there would be no one who says, “He brings his offerings on the ninth.” If so,

And if it should enter your mind that he accepted it from him,

Rabbi Tarfon, then it follows that there is no one who says, “He brings his offerings on the ninth”; if so,

let him bring his offerings on the eighth!

That is, if you say that Rabbi Tarfon accepted Rabbi Akiva’s opinion, this beraita agrees with no one.

He said

he rejected [this argument],

Rava:

Even if you can say that Rabbi Tarfon accepted it from him, nevertheless

it is not difficult

with the beraita that Hillel taught, because:

This—the case in which Rabbi Tarfon conceded to Rabbi Akiva—is one in which

the nazirite

immersed

A. There are three camps: the Camp of the Divine Presence, the Camp of the Levites, and the Camp of Israel.

on the seventh,

and delayed only his shaving until the eighth day.

This—the beraita that Hillel taught—is a case in which he

Between the Women’s Courtyard and the Temple courtyard was the Nicanor Gate. The area at the entrance to this gate was not sanctified with the sanctity of the Temple courtyard; it was not part of the Camp of the Divine Presence, but of the Camp of the Levites.

did not immerse on the seventh,

for he delayed that as well until the eighth day; in that case even Rabbi Akiva agrees that he brings his offerings on the ninth, like a leper who brings them on the ninth because he immersed on the eighth.

A. There are three camps: the camp of the Divine Presence, the camp of the Levites, and the camp of Israel.

The camp of the Divine Presence is the Sanctuary and the courtyard surrounding it.

The camp of the Levites is the Temple Mount, within the wall surrounding it.

Before the courtyard of the Temple there was an additional courtyard, called the Women’s Courtyard, and it belongs to the camp of the Levites.

Between the Women’s Courtyard and the courtyard of the Temple was the Nicanor Gate, and the area of the opening of this gate was not sanctified with the sanctity of the courtyard; it is not the camp of the Divine Presence, but the camp of the Levites.

And the Gaon Rabbi Yitzhak Ze’ev explains in chapter 3 of the Laws of Atonement that the area of the opening of the Nicanor Gate is called “before the Lord,” since it is part of the courtyard, for everything located within the partitions of the courtyard is the place that is “before the Lord.” The partitions enclose the area of the courtyard on their outer side. However, this area was not sanctified with the sanctity of the courtyard, so that those lacking atonement, such as a leper, could stand there for the sake of their atonement.

B. There are impure persons who are sent out from all three camps; there are impure persons who are sent out only from the camp of the Levites, but are permitted to remain in the camp of Israel; and there are impure persons who are sent out only from the camp of the Divine Presence.

C. An impure person [such as one who touched a creeping creature] who immersed for his purification does not become completely pure; rather, he must wait until the sun of the day of his immersion “sets.”

Throughout that entire day on which he immersed, his status is that of a “tevul yom,” and he is like a “second degree of impurity,” which disqualifies teruma through contact with it.

D. An impure person who must become pure through immersion and bringing an offering requires only immersion and sunset in order to become pure from his impurity with regard to contact with teruma and consecrated things.

However, he is still forbidden to enter the courtyard, which is the camp of the Divine Presence, until he brings his offering.

E. But concerning a man with a discharge who immersed for his purification and whose sun has not yet set, and who is therefore a “tevul yom of a man with a discharge,” the Gemara below discusses whether he is permitted to enter the camp of the Levites.

Abaye said: “I found”

I found

his colleagues

his colleagues

of Rav Natan bar Hoshaya, sitting and saying,

who were sitting and saying:

It is stated in the passage concerning the purification of a man with a discharge from his impurity [Leviticus 15:13]:

“Now if the man with the discharge becomes pure from his discharge [that his discharge ceases]—

and he shall count for himself seven days [clean of discharge], for his purification.

And he shall launder his garments [he shall immerse them to purify them].

And he shall bathe his flesh [he must immerse, on the seventh day] in living water, and become pure!

And on the eighth day [after he counted seven clean days free of discharge, and after he immersed on the seventh day] he shall take for himself two turtledoves or two young pigeons.

And he shall come before the Lord, to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and give them

the two turtledoves or the two young pigeons

to the koen.”

And this is how they expounded it: from the fact that Scripture said concerning a man with a discharge who immersed that he must bring his offering on the eighth day, and Scripture added that on the eighth day—“And he shall come before the Lord, to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting”—

When is he

to come

before the Lord, to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting?

That is, when is a man with a discharge who immersed for his purification permitted to enter the camp of the Levites, the Women’s Courtyard, and stand at the opening of the Nicanor Gate? Specifically on the day concerning which Scripture said at the beginning of the verse, “on the eighth day,” and not on the seventh day, even if he had already immersed on it for his purification, since he is still a “tevul yom,” for he does not become pure until the sun sets!

The open area of the opening of the Nicanor Gate was not sanctified with the sanctity of the courtyard, so that those lacking atonement could come and stand there for the sake of their purification; rather, its sanctity is only that of the “camp of the Levites.” Therefore, the man with a discharge can come there even though he is “lacking atonement,” since his offering has not yet been sacrificed, and he is still forbidden to enter the Temple.

When he immersed

already on the previous day, on the seventh day,

and his sun set.

That is, he had already immersed on the seventh day, and the evening marking the beginning of the eighth day arrived; at that time he becomes pure from the impurity of his discharge with regard to contact with teruma and consecrated things.

And Scripture says that only then is he permitted to come, on the eighth day, as far as the open area of the Nicanor Gate, which is the camp of the Levites, and bring his offering there with him, and give it to the koen, who will sacrifice it on his behalf.

And he is still not permitted to enter the Temple itself until his offering is sacrificed, as will be explained below.

But if he

did not immerse

on the seventh day

and

did not

make “

sunset”—

he is not

able to immerse on the eighth day and afterward come to the Nicanor Gate and sacrifice his offerings, because he is still a “tevul yom.”

Rather, if he immersed only on the eighth day, he must wait for the sunset of the eighth day and become pure through it; then he can come on the following day, on the ninth day, to the Nicanor Gate, and give his offering there to the koen.

Thus

Abaye proved from their words,

they hold

that the colleagues of Rav Natan bar Hoshaya are of the opinion that the law of a

“tevul yom of a man with a discharge” is

like that of a man with a discharge!

That is, just as a man with a discharge is forbidden to enter the camp of the Levites, so too a man with a discharge who immersed but whose sun has not yet set, called a “tevul yom of a man with a discharge,” is forbidden to enter the camp of the Levites. Therefore, he cannot enter the Women’s Courtyard or come to the Nicanor Gate unless he has immersed and his sun has set; then, on the following day, he is permitted to enter the camp of the Levites.

And Abaye added:

“I said to them, I”,

I myself stated my opinion to them:

According to your method, that you exclude a tevul yom of a man with a discharge from entering the camp of the Levites because you expound the verse stated concerning a man with a discharge, that on the eighth day “he shall come before the Lord, to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting,” so that only on the eighth day can he come before the Lord, and not on the seventh day, even after he has immersed, because you hold that the meaning of the verse is to forbid a tevul yom of a man with a discharge from entering the camp of the Levites—

But from now on,

according to your method, that you expound the meaning of the verse in this way—

concerning an impure nazirite,

who became impure through corpse impurity,

also, for it is written

concerning him, with regard to bringing his offerings after he became pure from his impurity, the same wording of the verse as concerning a man with a discharge [Numbers 6:10]:

“And on the eighth day

he shall bring two turtledoves to the koen, to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.”

Behold, according to your words, the same exposition should be applied also to a nazirite who became pure from corpse impurity:

When is he,

the nazirite who became pure from corpse impurity,

to come

to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting in order to bring his purification offerings?

Only

when he immersed

previously, on the seventh day,

and his sun set,

for then he can come on the eighth day to the Nicanor Gate, which is the camp of the Levites, and not on the seventh day, even after he immersed from corpse impurity, since he still lacks sunset.