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Nazir 7b

נזיר ז׳ ע״ב

Learn Nazir 7b step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

How the wording of a נדר of נזירות, including extra words, can create a second full term

Overview

The amud opens by finishing a discussion about the previous משנה. That משנה ruled that someone who says 'I am a נזיר and one hour' or 'and one and a half' is a נזיר for two full terms, and the גמרא explains why both cases had to be taught. Then a new משנה teaches that 'thirty days and one hour' makes him a נזיר for thirty-one days, because נזירות is never counted in hours. רב limits this ruling: it applies only when he said 'thirty-one days' as one number. If he said 'thirty days and one day,' he is a נזיר for two terms. The גמרא explains that רב follows רבי עקיבא, who learns meaning from extra words. As proof it quotes a משנה about selling a house. There רבי עקיבא agrees that the extra words 'except for these,' said about the pit and cistern, let the seller keep a path to them without buying one.

Opening lines

וְאִי תְּנָא ״שָׁעָה אַחַת״,

And if it had taught only 'one hour,'

מִשּׁוּם דְּלָא נָחֵית לְדַוְקָא.

that is because he did not go into exact detail.

אֲבָל אַחַת וּמֶחֱצָה,

But 'one and a half,'

דְּנָחֵית לְדַוְקָא —

where he does go into exact detail,

The steps (6)

  1. ResolutionWhy the משנה needed both 'one hour' and 'one and a half'
  2. Statementמשנה: Thirty days and one hour becomes thirty-one days
  3. Statementרב: Only 'thirty-one days' gives one term; 'thirty days and one day' gives two
  4. Statementרב follows רבי עקיבא, who learns from extra words
  5. ProofQuoting the משנה about selling a house with a pit and a cistern
  6. Proofרבי עקיבא agrees that 'except for these' gives the seller a path