Study Nazir folio 41B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
ואי כתב ״ראשו״ ולא כתב ״זקנו״, הוה אמינא: משמע תרתי: דאתי עשה ודחי את לא תעשה, ומשמע דהקפת כל הראש שמה הקפה. ואכתי בתער מנלן? להכי כתב רחמנא ״זקנו״.
And had the Torah written only: “His head,” and not written: “His beard,” I would say that “his head” teaches two matters. First, that a positive mitzva comes and overrides a prohibition. And it also teaches that rounding the entire head is called rounding. And still, from where do we derive that a metzora must shave with a razor? For this reason God also wrote: “His beard,” and we derive from the prohibition that bars priests from destroying their beards that the removal of the beard involves the use of a razor.
ורבי אליעזר, דאתי עשה ודחי את לא תעשה מנליה? יליף מ״גדילים״. דתניא: ״לא תלבש שעטנז״,
The Talmud asks: And R' Eliezer, from where does he derive the general principle that a positive mitzva will come and override a prohibition? The Talmud answers: He derives it from the mitzva of tzitzit. As it is taught in a baraita: This verse: “You should not wear diverse kinds of wool and linen” (Deuteronomy 22:11),