Talking Talmud

The measure of a "revi'it" never includes a combination of permitted and prohibited foods, except for the case of nazir, which has an explicit comment in the Torah to allow for the combination to make the greater prohibited quantify. Plus, the 10 cases of a revi'it, 5 of which are red, 5 of which are white. Also, the lashes that a nazir can accrue.

Rabbi Akiva teaches that the prohibited food combines with the permitted one to make the whole thing prohibited - specifically for the nazir, and he derives it from the laws of meat and milk. Plus, the role of "chidush," how innovation applies here. One question is how the meat and milk combine - how is that flavor transferred? Cooking bring of paramount importance. Plus, the kashering process. An...

When permissable foods combine with grape products that are off-limits to a nazir - how do the combine (or not) to be the amount that is prohibited? The permitted food combines with the prohibited (it doesn't have to be a full measure of the prohibited food). Plus, what are the implications for an offering on the altar? But the sages aren't all in agreement as to how this works. Abaye, in particul...

Details of what of grapes are prohibited to a nazir, including the minimum amount that would make the nazir obligated for violating his prohibition. Plus, a dive into the logical inference of the general to the specific, and how it applies in this case. Also, the example of general/specific from using ma'aser sheni money in Jerusalem.

The Koi. A halakhic conundrum - is this animal a behamah (domesticated) or chayah (wild)? Plus, the context of people taking vows based on the halakhic status of the koi. Are they nezirim or not? Also, opening chapter 6: beginning with what is actually prohibited to the nazir, including all of the different component parts of the grape.

First, a mishnah - a brainteaser of 6 people who take conditional vows of nezirut, depending on determinable unknowns. The question of whether those vows kick in depending on the dispute between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai. Plus, some talmudic revision of the phrasing of the mishnah. Also, the absence of talmudic text on Amud Bet. Plus, a brief review of the Baalei HaTosafot.

One who vows to be a nazir, then regrets it, and wants out - but the sage he asks to dissolve the vow tells him he must continue. Plus, how this regret lines up with consecration that was done in error. Also, what about animals that are stolen and/or blemished, and how that changes things (or doesn't) for a nazir's vow. Plus, the early practicing Jews and how they apparently didn't know about the...

What happens if you consecrate something in error? Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai dispute the outcome - not consecrated and consecrated, respectively. Also, delving into the side of Beit Shammai, and the rationale of priority when it comes to consecration, whether that which is more valuable or that which is indeed first.

Finishing chapter 4... with a new mishnah. A man can use his father nezirut funds for the final korbanot but a daughter cannot. But in general, a son cannot use his father's funds for his own offerings - this is an exception. Also, a series of questions at the end of the Gemara in that mishnah, with particulars about cases of nezirut, for which the Gemara does not have answers.

The Gemara presents a series of potential practical differences between the approaches of R. Yochanan (an inherited tradition - halakhah le-Moshe mi-Sinai) and Resh Lakish (a matter of education). Also, the value of taking the vow of nezirut (for a change), including R. Hanina's vow.

A new mishnah: Can a husband still revoke his wife's vow of nezirut at the time that she's bringing the final sacrifices at the conclusion of her nezirut? In contrast to earlier discussions, it seems that he cannot do so, this late in the game. The Gemara then probes the opinions of R. Akiva and R. Eliezer. Plus, a discussion of wigs, potentially being distasteful to a husband, in contrast to the...

R. Nachman's position on a designated animal that ends up being blemished - already consecrated for the nazir's offerings. Is it to be treated like an unallocated animal or an allocated one? R. Hamnuna questions whether the blemished animal could be treated like unspecified funds. Plus, Rava's objection to R. Nachman - via a son and father needing to bring their own respective sin-offerings, as pe...

Unspecified funds - including the sin-offering funds - can be rededicated for voluntary offerings, with the nazir as an exception to the usual sin-offering rules. Can these bird offerings be redirected? Plus, the role of the Dead Sea. Also, a talmudic revision of a passage that makes more sense.

More on specified (and unspecified) funds that have been set aside by one undertaking nezirut. The funds that were going to the sin-offering cannot be accessed for anything else, including voluntary offerings. How do we know this detail with regard to the nazir? There's a dispute whether it's derived from a verse or if there's no need for that kind of explication. And then the question comes back...

A woman's vow of nezirut can be revoked by her husband up until the time that she brings the post-nezirut sacrifices. But what happens if she's consecrated them, and not yet sacrificed them, and then he revoked the vow? What happens to those animals? Plus, what would it mean that she has her own property? Also, the 4 occasions where the nazir's sacrifices are not accompanied by bread.

Can a person intentionally commit a sin but still perform a good dead? The Gemara explores how intentionality impacts the meaning of our good and bad deeds, with an eye to Lot, Tamar, Yael, Lavan, Balaam and more. (With sexual transgressions providing the extreme examples)

More on a woman who vows to be a nezirah, and another woman says she'll follow in her footsteps - what happens to the vow of the second woman if the husband of the first woman dissolves her vow? Also, the case of the man who undoes his wife's vow of nezirut, but he upholds his own vow. Plus, the difference between a question and a statement - boiling down to inflection and tone, beyond the words t...

More on friends who join on to another person's vow of being a nazir. Does "And I" refer to the statement by the first person or that of the second person? Are these statements all linked together or not? With implications for whether the vows are binding on all of them in the same way. Plus, a comment on talmudic methodology and the lengths the Talmud goes to in attempting to answer its questions...

A new mishnah: when witnesses come to court to testify about another person's vow of nezirut. Plus contradictory witnesses. With a dispute between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai on how to square the contradictions. Also, moving on to the new chapter, 4: another new mishnah: where one person takes a vow as a nazir, and subsequent people say that they each are too, then they're all nezirim... except t...

When nezirut is prevented or interrupted by impurity, when does the count begin? Of the 4 opinions, whom do we follow? Plus, an immediate new case of a woman who takes a vow of nezirut, and then becomes impure, and her husband revokes her vow of nezirut. Now what does she need to do? Also, a religious, philosophical take on what it means to take the vow of a nazir. Also, Rava and Abaye on the star...

The complications of different impurities affecting a nazir, and how he only needs to bring one korban to purify from all the impurity. Also, the dispute between R. Yosi and R. Yehudah -- on the question of sanctification of the nazir on the day that the count resumes - either the 7th or the 8th day. With elegant reads of the verses to delineate each side of the dispute.

The ongoing dispute between R Yochanan and Resh Lakish, over the declaration of nezirut in the cemetery - when the vow takes effect. Also, more on the person who takes on nezirut in a cemetery - when is he required to shave? And what happens between when he takes the oath and when the nezirut kicks in, if indeed he first must leave and purify before he can even begin the count?

A new chapter! And 2 new mishnayot. Opening with the case of one who takes a vow of becoming a nazir, but without specifying the number of days - as compared to one who does articulate "30 days," and what happens when each person shaves his head on the 30th day. What about a vow that sets up two periods of nezirut, to be consecutive. When does shaving become acceptable? Plus, what are the implicat...

A new mishnah: on a compound vow of becoming a nazir when a son is born to him, and also for 100 days. How do those two elements of the vow work together, overlap, preempt, or delay each other? Also, how Rav expresses his contradiction of the mishnah. How does the timing line up with haircutting and mourning, in that event. Plus, the comparison to the count of Hilkhot Niddah, the laws of family pu...

Someone who vows consecutive periods of nezirut, as well as a vow for when his son is born... The Gemara figures out how to play out those consecutive or overlapping terms of nezirut. Complicated by one who has a case of tzara'at as well. Also, the lashes a nazir who violates his vow is subject to.