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Nazir 52a

נזיר נ״ב ע״א

Learn Nazir 52a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

Whether a creature missing a limb still counts as a whole creature (the ant question), and whether the משנה means a spine AND a skull together or either one alone

Overview

The גמרא first tries to solve an earlier question: does an ant missing a limb still count as a whole creature? רב יהודה מדיסקרתא brings a ברייתא about שרצים that plays the words "בהם" and "מהם" against each other and lands on a lentil-sized piece, the size of a חומט when it first forms. He concludes that size is a fixed tradition, so an incomplete creature should not count. רב שמעיה rejects the proof: the lentil rule may apply only to a creature that is not yet alive, so the ant question remains. Then the גמרא turns to our משנה, which says a נזיר shaves for "the spine and the skull," and asks whether both are needed together or either one is enough. רבא brings a ברייתא about a spine whose ribs were scraped off, and the גמרא infers that an unscraped spine alone is טמא, but this proof is pushed off. A second proof, from the story of the doctors who checked a box of bones, is also pushed off. Finally, the גמרא lays out רבי יהודה's list of six items that רבי עקיבא held טמא, where spine and skull appear together as one item, and begins a proof from that count that continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

אָמַר רַב יְהוּדָה מִדִּיסְקַרְתָּא:

Rav Yehuda from Diskarta said:

תָּא שְׁמַע:

Come and hear:

״בָּהֶם״, יָכוֹל בְּכוּלָּן —

"Them": one might think this means all of them (whole creatures).

תַּלְמוּד לוֹמַר: ״מֵהֶם״.

Therefore the verse says: "Of them."

The steps (11)

  1. Proofרב יהודה brings a teaching about two verses on touching creeping creatures
  2. ProofThe middle answer is a lentil, so size is a fixed tradition
  3. Rejectionרב שמעיה: the lentil rule may only be for a creature not yet alive
  4. QuestionDoes the משנה mean spine and skull together, or either one?
  5. Proofרבא brings a teaching about a spine whose ribs were removed
  6. ProofInferring 'either one' from the scraped spine
  7. RejectionThe ברייתא only teaches the scraped case
  8. ProofThe box of bones checked by the doctors
  9. ProofInferring 'either one' from the doctors' words
  10. RejectionThe doctors meant 'not even one of them'
  11. ProofA new proof from the count of six items