Nazir 5a — the Talmud in English

And he derives

Rabbi, by means of a gezerah shavah,

“days, days”

from the houses of walled cities

in which it is said, “Days shall be its redemption,” and from this he learned:

Just as there

in the houses of walled cities, the seller does not redeem the house except until

twelve months —

so here too,

in the matter of Avshalom’s shaving, it was every

twelve

months.

Rabbi Nehorai says: He would shave

Avshalom

once every thirty days,

and his reason is explained below.

Rabbi Yosei says: He would shave

from one Sabbath eve to the next Sabbath eve—

for we find this among the sons of kings

like Avshalom son of David,

that they shave from one Sabbath eve to the next Sabbath eve.

And the Gemara wonders:

What is Rabbi’s reason

who had Avshalom shave once every twelve months, because he

derives it from the houses of walled cities

in which it is said, “Days shall be its redemption”?

But Rabbi

himself

is the one who said

that the seller cannot redeem before two days have passed from the sale, because it is said, “Days shall be its redemption,” and

“days”

are not

fewer than two.

If so, let us say that he would cut his hair every two days?!

And we answer:

This gezerah shavah was learned because of the heaviness.

That is to say: We are coming to explain through the gezerah shavah the statement of the verse, “At the end of days to days, when he would shave, for it was heavy upon him”—

and

if so,

with two days

there

is no heaviness

of hair; and certainly the gezerah shavah was not given to teach from the measure of two days, but rather from the limitation of the time of a year for redemption, as it is said there: “And if he does not redeem it by the completion of a full year, the house that is in the city that has a wall shall rise permanently to the one who purchased it, for his generations; it shall not go out in the Jubilee.” Thus we have learned that until a full year he can redeem it.

The Gemara further raises a difficulty against Rabbi:

And perhaps

once every

two years

Avshalom would shave, for we should learn by a gezerah shavah, “days, days,” from that

which is written:

“And it came to pass at the end of two years of days”?!

And we answer:

We derive

“days”

that do not have years with them,

like “days to days,” which is said concerning Avshalom,

from

“days”

that do not have years with them,

like “Days shall be its redemption.”

And this

written

one

“And it came to pass at the end of two years of days”

does not prove,

for it has years with it, as it says, “two years of days.”

The Gemara further raises a difficulty against Rabbi:

And perhaps

once every

thirty days,

and let us learn “days, days” from that

which is written:

“Until a month of days”?!

And we answer:

We derive

“days”

that do not have months with them, from days that do not have months with them; and this does not prove

the written

one, which has months with it,

as it says, “a month of days.”

And we still raise a difficulty:

And perhaps

the gezerah shavah was given to learn

from here—

for it is written:

“From days to days

the daughters of Israel would go to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days in the year.” Thus “days to days” is three months, which is the division of the year into four equal parts; and let us say that he cut his hair once every three months?!

And we answer:

We derive

“days”

from

“days,”

and we do not derive

“days”

from

“to days”!

The Gemara wonders about this resolution:

And what difference does it make

concerning deriving by a gezerah shavah between “days” and “to days”?

But the tannai of the statements of Rabbi Yishmael

said concerning the passage of the plagues of houses:

“And the koen shall return”

“And the koen shall come”

this returning is this coming,

and we learn by a gezerah shavah from one to the other that he should do in this one everything that he does in that one.

Thus, one need not insist in a gezerah shavah on an identical word, but rather on an identical meaning.

And we answer:

These words

that we do not insist on the similarity of the word itself apply only

where there is nothing similar to it [that there is no word resembling the word under discussion]—

But where there is something similar to it—

from what is similar to it we learn [when there is another word resembling it, we learn specifically from that identical word].

Some say

another reason why we do not learn a gezerah shavah from Jephthah’s daughter: and because

how do we know that every three months is one time [from where do we know that the division of the four days of the year is an equal division of once every three months]? And behold:

Perhaps

the division of

four times in the year [the four times in the year] is:

four months, one time [once it is after four months].

two months at one time [and the second time it is after two months], and then it repeats in turn.

two months for one interval

[and the second occasion occurs after two months], and then the pattern repeats.

And certainly the gezerah shavah was not given to learn from a place where we cannot know the intention of the verse; necessarily, the intention is from another verse concerning which there is no doubt.

We learned in a beraita:

Rabbi Nehorai says: He shaves once every thirty days:

And the Gemara explains the reason of Rabbi Nehorai:

What is the reason that concerning the koanim

they cut their hair once every thirty days?

Because there is heaviness

of hair during this period—

so here too

concerning Avshalom,

there is heaviness

during this period, and once his hair became heavy upon him, he shaved.

We learned in a beraita:

Rabbi Yosei says: He shaves from one Sabbath eve to the next Sabbath eve,

for we find that the sons of kings shave from one Sabbath eve to the next Sabbath eve:

The Gemara wonders: If so,

what difference is there between him and his other brothers [if so, in what way was Avshalom different from his brothers], since they were all sons of kings who shaved from one Sabbath eve to the next Sabbath eve?!

[if so, in what way was Absalom different from his brothers], since they were all princes and cut their hair from one Sabbath eve to the next?!

And we answer:

A festival that occurs in the middle of the Sabbath [week] is what distinguishes them.

[week] was the difference between them.

For his brothers would shave

for the honor of the festival, whereas

he

Avshalom

would not shave.

Alternatively—

there is a difference between them—

to shave from the morning of Sabbath eve [to shave on Sabbath eve in the morning].

[they would cut their hair on the morning of Sabbath eve].

For

his brothers

would

shave

also on the morning of Sabbath eve, whereas

he

Avshalom

would not shave until evening [he would not shave until the evening].

And since the Gemara above brought the verse, “And it came to pass at the end of forty years, and Avshalom said to the king: Let me go, please, and fulfill my vow that I vowed to the Lord in Hebron,” the Gemara explains it:

These

“forty years”

for what purpose?

To what event does the verse refer when it says that after forty years this rebellion of Avshalom occurred?

Rabbi Nehorai says in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua: At the end of

forty years from when they asked for a king ,

as it is said [I Samuel 8]: “And all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and they came to Samuel at Ramah. And they said to him, Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.”

The tannai: The year in which they asked

Israel

for a king

from Samuel of Ramah

was

the

tenth year

of

the reign of

Samuel of Ramah.

Mishna:

One who undertakes

unspecified naziriteship,

who said, “I am hereby a nazirite,” and did not specify the number of days of his naziriteship, is a nazirite for

thirty days.

Gemara:

From where are these words derived,

from where do we learn the number of days of unspecified naziriteship?

Rav Mattana said:

For

the verse says

in the passage of the nazirite: “Until the completion of the days that he shall consecrate himself to the Lord,

he shall be holy”; “

he shall be”

has the numerical value of thirty

[thirty]

they are,

teaching that the number of days for which he shall consecrate himself to the Lord shall be thirty days.

Bar Padda said

another source for the number of days of unspecified naziriteship:

Corresponding to

“nazirite”

and

“his naziriteship” [and likewise “vow” and “his vow”]

[and likewise “vow” and “his vow”]

which are stated in the Torah—

in the passage of the nazirite—

thirty

times,

less one.

And we learn that unspecified naziriteship is twenty-nine days; and with the thirtieth day, on which he is required to observe naziriteship until he brings his offerings on that day, there are thirty days. This is what we learned: “Unspecified naziriteship is thirty days.”

The Gemara raises a difficulty:

And Rav Mattana also

who holds that unspecified naziriteship is thirty days,

should derive

from

“nazirite, his naziriteship”

that the measure of unspecified naziriteship is twenty-nine days?!

He can say to you

Rav Mattana:

Those

expressions of naziriteship below

came for exposition

and are not combined in the count; therefore you cannot learn from here that naziriteship is twenty-nine days?!

And these are the expressions of naziriteship that came for exposition and not for the count:

A.

“From wine and intoxicating drink he shall abstain,”

which comes to teach:

to prohibit

for the nazirite

wine of a mitzva like wine of an optional act,

as was explained above, 4a.

B.

“When a man shall clearly utter a vow, the vow of a nazirite, to consecrate himself,”

which

teaches that naziriteship takes effect upon naziriteship,

as, for example, when he said, “I am hereby a nazirite today, and a nazirite today,” in which case he is required to observe two naziriteships.