Study Nazir folio 54A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
דאמר מר: טומאה בוקעת ועולה, בוקעת ויורדת. ואילו גבי נגיעה, אמר רב יהודה, תניא: ״(וכל) הנוגע בעצם או בחלל״, ״בעצם״ — זה עצם כשעורה, ״או בחלל״ — זה אבר הנחלל מן החי ואין בו להעלות ארוכה,
As the Master said: Ritual impurity in a sealed grave breaks through and ascends and breaks through and descends, so that the grave imparts impurity like the corpse itself. While with regard to contact with these sources of impurity, Rav Yehuda said that it is taught in a baraita that the verse “and upon him that touched a bone, or the slain, or the dead, or the grave” (Numbers 19:18) is expounded as follows: “A bone”; this is a bone that is a barley-grain-bulk. “Or the slain”; this is a limb slain, i.e., severed, from the living, which does not contain enough flesh for it to heal.
״או במת״ — זה אבר הנחלל מן המת, ״או בקבר״ — אמר ריש לקיש: זה קבר שלפני הדיבור.
The baraita continues its interpretation of the verse. “Or the dead”; this is a limb slain from a corpse, which is not covered by enough flesh for it to heal were he alive. “Or the grave”; Reish Lakish said: This is a grave that contained a corpse from before the time the command of these halakhot was given to the Jewish people. These graves render people and items ritually impure by contact, but do not carry the halakhot of impurity imparted in a tent.
האי אבר מן המת, היכי דמי? אי דאית ביה עצם כשעורה היינו הנוגע בעצם! אלא דלית ביה עצם כשעורה, ואפילו הכי רחמנא רבייה!
The Talmud asks: With regard to this limb from a corpse, which is listed above as imparting ritual impurity by contact, what are the circumstances of the case? If the limb contains a bone that is a barley-grain-bulk, this is included in the halakha of one who touches a bone, and it was already taught that a bone imparts impurity by contact. Rather, it must be that it does not contain a bone that is a barley-grain-bulk, and even so God includes it in the halakhot of impurity, despite the fact that it does not contain enough flesh. This indicates that a nazirite shaves for a limb of this kind, in accordance with the opinion of Reish Lakish.