Study Nazir folio 7A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
ואימא שנה? מי מנינן ליומי?! והא רבנן דקיסרי אמרי: מנין שאין מונין ימים לשנים — שנאמר: ״לחדשי השנה״, חדשים מחשבין לשנים, ולא ימים לשנים.
The Talmud asks further: But say it is referring to a year, which can also be full or lacking. The Talmud responds: Do we count years by days? Didn’t the rabbis of Caesarea say: From where is it derived that one does not count days toward years, but that years are calculated according to months? As it is stated: “Of the months of the year” (Exodus 12:2). This teaches that months are calculated to comprise years, but days are not counted toward years. Therefore, only a month can be described as being completed by a particular day.
מתני׳ אמר: ״הריני נזיר אחת גדולה״, ״הריני נזיר אחת קטנה״, אפילו: ״מכאן ועד סוף העולם״ — נזיר שלשים יום.
Mishnah: If one said: I am hereby a nazirite for one long term, or: I am hereby a nazirite for one short term, or even if one said: I am hereby a nazirite from now until the end of the world, in all these cases he is a nazirite for 30 days.
גמ׳ אמאי? והא ״מכאן ועד סוף העולם״ קאמר! הכי קאמר: אריכא לי הדא מילתא כמכאן ועד סוף העולם.
Talmud: The Mishnah taught that even one who said: I am hereby a nazirite from now until the end of the world, becomes a nazirite for 30 days. The Talmud asks: Why does he become a nazirite for only 30 days? Didn’t he say: From now until the end of the world? The Talmud answers: This is what he is saying: Because of the difficulties it entails, it is as though this matter of naziriteship were as lengthy for me as the time from now until the end of the world.
תנן: ״הריני נזיר מכאן עד מקום פלוני״ — אומדים כמה ימים מכאן ועד מקום פלוני, פחות משלשים יום — נזיר שלשים יום. ואם לאו — נזיר כמנין הימים. ואימא הכא נמי: אריכא לי הא מילתא כמכאן ועד מקום פלוני!
The Talmud raises a difficulty: We learned in the Mishnah (8a): If one says: I am hereby a nazirite from here until such and such a place, one estimates how many days it takes to walk from here until such and such a place. If it is a distance of less than 30 days, he is a nazirite for 30 days, since this is the minimum term of naziriteship. And if not, i.e., if it takes more than 30 days to walk that distance, he is a nazirite in accordance with the number of days it takes to walk to that place. But here too, in that Mishnah, say that the individual intends to accept only a 30-day term of naziriteship, and he means to say: This matter of naziriteship is as lengthy for me as the time it would take me to walk from here until such and such a place.