Study Nazir folio 57A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
גמ׳ איבעיא להו: עצם כשעורה — הלכה, ורביעית דם — קל וחומר, ואין דנין קל וחומר מהלכה.
Talmud: A dilemma was raised before the rabbis with regard to the halakha transmitted to Moses from Sinai mentioned in the Mishnah: Is the halakha that a nazirite must shave for a bone that is a barley-grain-bulk a halakha transmitted to Moses from Sinai, and it was the status of 1/4th-log of blood that R' Akiva sought to derive as an a fortiori inference, and with regard to this claim they said: One does not derive an a fortiori inference from a halakha transmitted to Moses from Sinai?
או דלמא: רביעית דם — הלכה, ועצם כשעורה — קל וחומר, ואין דנין קל וחומר מהלכה? תא שמע: עצם כשעורה — הלכה, ורביעית דם — קל וחומר, ואין דנין קל וחומר מהלכה.
Or perhaps the ruling that 1/4th-log of blood imparts ritual impurity in a tent is the halakha transmitted to Moses from Sinai, and R' Akiva sought to use the case of a bone that is a barley-grain-bulk as the source of an a fortiori inference that a nazirite must shave for 1/4th-log as well, to which the rabbis replied that one does not derive an a fortiori inference from a halakha transmitted to Moses from Sinai. The Talmud answers: Come and hear the unequivocal statement of a baraita: A bone that is a barley-grain-bulk is a halakha, and 1/4th-log of blood is an a fortiori inference, and one does not derive an a fortiori inference from a halakha.