Nazir 20b

נזיר כ׳ ע״ב

Learn Nazir 20b step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

Open Nazir 20b in Gemara Clarity

Topic

End of the counting-witnesses discussion; new chapter on joining another's נזירות vow ('And I', husband and wife); ריש לקיש's time limit of תוך כדי דיבור

Overview

The amud opens by finishing an earlier topic: witnesses who disagree about how many terms of נזירות a person vowed. The גמרא asks why רב needed to rule that a disagreement within one pair of witnesses splits their testimony, since he already said so about two separate sets. It then brings the view of ארץ ישראל: a difference in counting is not a contradiction at all, because the smaller number is included in the larger. The chapter then closes with a הדרן, and a new chapter begins. Its משנה teaches that people who hear a נזירות vow and say 'And I' all become נזירים. If the first vow is dissolved, all the vows fall with it, but if the last is dissolved, only the last person is released. Saying 'my mouth is like his mouth and my hair is like his hair' also works. A husband can annul his wife's vow when she joins his, but not when he joins hers. In the גמרא, ריש לקיש requires everyone to join within תוך כדי דיבור, the time of a student's greeting to his רב. רבי יהודה נשיאה objects that this leaves a student no room.

Opening lines

The steps (13)

1. ChallengeWhy did רב need to say this?
2. ResolutionIn ארץ ישראל they say a counting difference is not a contradiction
3. ConclusionHadran — Closing the chapter מי שאמר
4. StatementJoining someone's vow by saying 'And I'
5. StatementDissolving the first vow or the last vow
6. Statement'My mouth is like his mouth'
7. StatementThe wife joins her husband's vow
8. StatementThe husband joins his wife's vow
9. Statement'I am a נזיר, and you' — she answers 'Amen'
10. Statement'I am a נזירה, and you' — he answers 'Amen'
11. StatementEveryone must join the vow within a few seconds
12. QuestionHow long is 'within the time of an utterance'?
13. Challengeרבי יהודה נשיאה protests that the student is left no room