Bamidbar Chapter 6 – Transcript

Bamidbar Chapter 6: The Laws of the Nazir

Context and Placement in Sefer Bamidbar

Today we are reading Bamidbar chapter 6. As we’ve discussed yesterday, this is a continuation of the group of mitzvot that are in the first part, the first series of the book of Bamidbar, which if you want to put it into a time period is sort of set in this time between the first and the second month of the second year, the year that the Mishkan was set up and the year in which the machanot [camps] were set up. And these mitzvot somehow connect with that subject, or with that time, sorry. Either they were set in that time or they connect to that subject.

So now we have the fourth mitzvah in this group, in this series, and that’s the mitzvah of Nazir. So in some sense it connects to the previous mitzvah, or one before the previous one, which was a kind of promise. It talked about some kind of matanah [gift], something that gets dedicated to the Kohen, to the Mikdash, like the ish asher ein lo ish goyal [a man who has no redeemer] — le’Hashem asher ma’al [what was misappropriated] goes to the Kohen. Here we’re also going to talk about some things that go to the Kohen. That’s one way in which to explain the connection. Of course the Sotah also is bringing something to the Kohen, so this is the connection.

The Broader Thematic Connection: Expansion of Kedusha

In a more broader sense, as we’ve discussed, Sefer Bamidbar is somehow the things that are the broadening, the expansion of the kedusha [holiness], of the machaneh [camp] all the way to the other machanot in all kinds of ways, in literal ways, and in more spiritual, more theoretical ways, more conceptual ways. So there’s a conceptual way in which a Nazir, it can also be seen as the expansion of the kehuna [priesthood] to outside of it, because a Nazir is basically, or one way to understand it, is someone who is not a Kohen, but wants to act as if he’s a Kohen, or can get the kedusha of a Kohen in the way of a neder [vow].

A neder is just like all nedarim [vows], just like there is kodesh [holiness], there are some things that are kodesh, and then you can make some things kodesh by your words, by your actions. We’ll learn the general halacha of nedarim all the way later in this book also, so it belongs to that. But generally here, when we’re expanding the machaneh, one more way of expanding it is that some other person, a regular person, or someone can become a Nazir, so dedicate himself to God in some way, and it will give him the laws, he will be required to act in these ways, and then of course he will bring after him his korban [offering]. So that’s, I think, the broader way to understand the connection of the halacha of Nazir to Sefer Bamidbar in general, and to this part of it in particular, which is the part of the expansion of the kedusha to all the machaneh.

The Opening: Ish O Isha — Inclusion of Women

And as all these parts, we have the story, the framing, what happens, or what we would know about it, and what the Torah is adding, the law that it’s giving for that person. So it starts, tell the people, ish o isha [a man or a woman], so a man or a woman, this is again an expansion, many times we have ish o isha, not always, when it says only ish, it’s to exclude women, but here there’s a very explicit inclusion of women. So of course women, we’ve discussed the daughters of Leviim [Levites], for example, the daughters of the Kohanim, what their halachot are, so that’s the limitation, but this halacha is explicitly expanded, even a woman can be a Nazir or a Nazira, and they have this same kind of kedusha as a Kohen can have, or as a Nazir can have.

So they can, they will express, and yafli can be translated something like express, neder [a vow], to be a Nazir, neder nazir [a vow of Nazir], the kind of neder which makes you a Nazir, to be a Nazir to Hashem, to separate themselves towards Hashem.

The Three Categories of Nazir Laws

Now there’s several, mostly three different things, three halachot, three categories of halachot that they have to practice.

1. Separation from Wine and All Grape Products

The first thing is keeping themselves away from wine. So that’s the first, wine or things that make you drunk, he must separate himself, even chometz [vinegar], even vinegar made of wine, which might somehow still make you drunk, or as we see here, this might be somehow more symbolic, it’s not really only about getting drunk, of course getting drunk can cause moral issues, but also there’s a symbolic thing, he’s not part of this whole world that has to do with wine.

This is somehow connected with the concept of a Kohen, as we’ve seen in Parshat Shemini, that a Kohen cannot drink when he does the avodah [service] at least, or maybe in general, a Kohen Gadol [High Priest], who is always belonging to the avodah, there’s halachot about this, but it seems like that’s the concept, and a Nazir is making that way, so he can’t drink any wine, and it adds all of these additions, you could see it as, sometimes we can see it as a seyag [fence], like don’t even get close, or it can be seen as a symbolic separation.

So symbolic separation is also important, there’s a question here always, for example, we say shechar [intoxicating drink], and then some people interpret this as anything that makes you drunk, like you can’t drink whiskey either, or beer, or something like that, the Chachamim [Sages] don’t say it like that, they say it means, wine that makes you drunk doesn’t mean other things that make you drunk, and that’s because they read it as a more symbolic thing than a physical thing. Physical thing, the moral thing of not getting drunk, and things like that, is not something special for a Nazir, everyone has to be careful with that.

So, and also not anything made from grapes, mishrat anavim [grape products], any grape juice, or anything, pressed in grapes, or waters mixed with grapes, or anything like that, anything, any grapes at all, not even grapes, not only drinks made out of grapes, but grapes themselves, whether they’re dry, so raisins, or wet, so fresh, you cannot eat, or anything made from gefen [grapevine], anything made from the vineyards, sometimes we make things from grape leaves, right? So chartzanim v’zag [grape seeds and skins], which means something like grape leaves, or the seeds, there’s a debate about what exactly each of these two mean, but even those things doesn’t mean, so again, he’s totally separated from all the kinds of vineyards and wine, that’s one thing that a Nazir has to do.

The Principle: Accepting the Torah’s Definition of Nezirut

And that’s the law, so in other words, if you say hareini nazir [I am hereby a Nazir], you make yourself a Nazir, you have to carry out the concept of a Nazir as the Torah defines it, a Nazir, you can’t just define it yourself, you can make a neder for whatever you want, but a Nazir is a specific kind of neder that gives you a specific kind of kedusha, and as I’m saying, it’s a symbolic kedusha, not only like a practical kedusha, like being dedicated to something, there’s a symbolism in this, and therefore you have to follow these laws.

2. Not Cutting the Hair

The second thing you have to follow is, you cannot cut your hair, or the way it says it, a razor cannot pass on your head, all of these times you will have to let your hair grow, gadel pera [grow freely], grow openly or grow freely, we’ve seen it, pera rosh isha [uncovering a woman’s head] means open her hair or uncover her or something like that, so the Nazir does not groom his hair, cannot cut his hair, all of this time, that’s something that we did not entirely find back on him [in the laws of Kohanim], in some sense we even found the opposite, but there’s something going on in this.

This is the one thing that is interesting that needs really more explanation, but there seems to be some symbolism in this, of course you know the story of Shimshon, where there’s a symbolism and like some divine power that lies in his hair, who is called the Nazir, so there’s something going on with the hair, with the not cutting the hair, as long as he’s a Nazir.

3. Prohibition Against Contact with the Dead

And the third thing is, he may not come close to a dead person, in other words, he has to be careful to not contaminate himself with tumat met [impurity of the dead], even his father, his mother, his brother, his sister, in other words, even the ones that are for example, can be metamei [become impure], remember a Kohen hedyot [regular Kohen] is metamei, he is like a Kohen [Gadol], that’s similar language, we had something like a Kohen [Gadol], his crown, God’s crown is on his head, and it’s also a play on the word nezirut, nezirut is a separation, it’s also a crown, the separation that a Nazir does achieve some kind of crowning.

The Symbolic Nature of This Restriction

He’s, then again, this shows that this is a symbolic thing here, there’s something symbolic here, where I know that like morally, ethically, you need to go to your relative’s funeral, you need to be metamei to them, it’s even a mitzvah for a Kohen hedyot, or for a regular person, but him, since he separated himself and dedicated himself to God in this way, he does not contaminate himself by going, by touching them, by coming close to them, he is holy to Hashem, that’s the halacha, those are the three things that a Nazir has to do.

The Laws of Accidental Contamination

Now, and this seems interestingly built in, we don’t have something similar for a Kohen, but we do have something like this for a Nazir, so that’s interesting to think of, why a Kohen doesn’t have a halacha, what does he do if he gets tamei? Of course, he gets tamei, he has to purify himself, but it doesn’t say about like, he doesn’t have to bring a korban, and he doesn’t have to have a kapara [atonement] for that, so it seems like some, the pasuk might be saying something like, if you decide yourself to act this way, then you carry responsibility for it, so even if something happened by mistake, or if it was oness [beyond one’s control], even of course, your hair can be cut off by mistake, or by coercion, or by force, that’s not going to be an issue, but if you will, sometimes someone dies next to you, or somehow, by way of some unplanned thing, right, sometimes you can’t plan everything around you.

The Significance of the Hair as the Nazir’s Crown

And ki yamut met alav b’feta pit’om [if someone dies suddenly next to him], v’timei rosh nizro [and contaminates his consecrated head], his head, right, the head that is holy, right, nezer al rosho [the crown is on his head], it was a hair, so it seems like maybe the point of the hair, maybe this can give us a clue to what the point of the hair is, like a Kohen has bigdei kehuna [priestly garments], it has like some kind of hat, or some kind of clothing that gives him the crown of God, or like a Kohen Gadol, as it sits, which is also called nezer hakodesh [the holy crown], the Nazir cannot get that, but he has his hair instead, and if he gets tamei, so he desecrates that, so right, he’s desecrating the kedusha that’s on him.

The Purification Process

And therefore, what he’s going to have to do is, on the day that he purifies himself, right, so the seventh day, we will learn in Parshat Chukat, that on the seventh day after he has the efer para [ashes of the red heifer] on him, it gets purified with that, and the seventh day, he will cut off his hair, that’s like he ends this nezirut, and the eighth day, so after he’s entirely pure, he will bring a korban, two torim [turtledoves], two pigeons, or two benei yona [young doves], two birds, to the Kohen, and they will make a chatat v’olah [sin offering and burnt offering], that will be the two korbonot, this will be a kapara, an atonement, me’asher chata al hanefesh [for the sin regarding the dead person], that he sinned by going close to a nefesh [soul], on a dead person, nefesh met, the kedusha, and then his head will be holy, re-holy, so this is like fixing the problem of him getting tamei by mistake, or by, I don’t know what it’s called, by mistake, by b’ones [accidentally], in an unplanned way, it wasn’t his fault.

Restarting the Nezirut Period

Then, that he has to bring this korban, when he’s pure, and then he restarts to think, v’hizir l’Hashem et yemei nizro [and he shall consecrate to Hashem the days of his nezirut], so then he starts again, the days are apparently here, you can, we see that there’s an amount of times, we’ll see also how, in the next parasha, what happens in the regular time, so a Nazir is not something forever, generally, of course, there might be some nezirim [plural of Nazir] that promise it forever, but apparently the standard way is to do it for a period of time, so here, he’s going to have to act as if his period of time has finished, and he will start it again, and then he will bring also a keves ben shanah l’asham [a lamb in its first year as a guilt offering], so those, those are the three korbanot he has to bring, really, and v’hayamim harishonim yiplu [and the previous days shall fall away], so the previous days will after, will fall off, right, they will fall, they will fall apart, because ki tamei nizro [because his nezirut became impure], because he, he made tamei his nezer, so therefore, he will have to

The Nazir’s Accidental Impurity — Resolution

So now, that’s what happens if there’s an accident, right, by accident something happens. Now what’s the regular way of finishing a Nazir?

The Regular Completion of Nezirus

The Karbanos Brought Upon Completion

The regular way is, the day that it finishes, he brings his Karban. So now he brings a Keves [male lamb] for an Olah [burnt offering], a Kivsa [female sheep] for a Chatas [sin offering], and an Ayil [ram] for Shelamim [peace offering]. And he also brings Matzos [unleavened breads] mixed with oil, and Rekikei Matzos [thin unleavened wafers] — so two kinds of Matzos — and with their Mincha [meal offering], with their Nesachim [libations].

So a whole big party, like we saw some kind of Shelamim. Shelamim is always a party, so there’s a celebration of them finishing this. He brings it to the Kohen, they make the Chatas and the Olah, goes to the Kohen, right, the Ayil he makes a Shelamim together with the Matzos, with the Mincha, with the Nesach. So that’s part of the ceremony of him finishing his Nezirus.

The Hair-Cutting Ceremony

And then, as we’ve seen, the Nazir has his hair. So now, as part of the ceremony of finishing it, he will cut off his hair. Gilach rosh nizro [he shall shave the head of his nezirus]. We might understand that it’s entirely full, but maybe it just means the amount that grew in the time that he was a Nazir, he has to cut off. I don’t know if it means that he has to entirely cut off — that doesn’t say over here at least. What the halacha says is something else, but we’re speaking of what it says here.

And he will take this hair and burn it under the Shelamim. So somehow his hair gets burned, so it seems like the hair that he grows out in his Nezirus becomes part of the Karban that he brings after the Nazir. It’s not the Karban that goes to the Mizbeach [altar], but part of the Shelamim, so it’s still part of the celebration, part of the Karban.

The Process of Tenufa

Then there’s a process of Tenufa [waving]. The Kohen takes the Zeroa [foreleg], and one Challah [loaf], and one Rakik [wafer] — two kinds of Challahs — he puts it on the Nazir after he shaves his Nazir. And here nizro again can be read in two ways: his crown, because here is his crown, or like his Nezirus, the promise of Nezirus.

And he makes Tenufa, and then the Kohen gets, like in every Shelamim, the Kohen gets the Tenufa, the Shok [thigh], and the Chazeh [breast] — the breast and the leg, the front leg, the Kohen gets. So that’s the Tenufa. Tenufa is like a symbolic, bringing that, a symbolic Akravah [bringing near], bringing that to the Mizbeach. That’s what it always is.

The Nazir Is Released from His Vows

And after all that, Ve’achar yishteh haNazir yayin [and afterwards the Nazir may drink wine] — now the Nazir is free of his vows, he can drink wine. Of course he can meet hamet [the dead] and tamei [become impure] also, but maybe that’s obvious.

The Footer: Additional Voluntary Offerings

That’s the end, and we have a header, a footer for this parasha. Let’s say it’s a Nazir who will promise his Karban — sometimes he will bring more Karbanos, according to how much money he has, as he promised. So this Karban, as we see, a Nazir is something voluntary, so maybe someone promises that when he finishes his Nazir, he will bring more Shelamim, or more Todas [thanksgiving offerings], and things like that. He could, but this is the minimum that he has to, the obligatory ones.

Birchas Kohanim — The Fifth Mitzvah in the Series

And here we have the fifth, the last part of this parasha, is the fifth mitzvah in this series, which also we can see how they belong very much to this series: the mitzvah of Birchas Kohanim [the Priestly Blessing].

The Mitzvah of the Language Itself

Now it’s more specifically not the mitzvah of Birchas Kohanim, but the mitzvah, very interestingly, the mitzvah of the *language* of Birchas Kohanim. And it’s very interesting: maybe the mitzvah is the language, maybe the mitzvah is the actual bracha. In other words, do we read this as saying, when you bless the nation, you should bless them using this liturgy, using this language? Or is it saying that there’s a mitzvah to bless them, and bless them these blessings? I think it’s both.

But it’s interesting that this is, up until now, in the Chumash, we didn’t have any liturgical language, like anything like, you should say this. There were a lot of things to do, there wasn’t anything to say. There was like vehisvadu [and they shall confess], but no words. Later in Devarim we’ll have some words for a vidui [confession], and so on. Here’s the first time in the Torah where we have specific words. They’re not words of tefillah, but they’re words of Birchas Kohanim.

Birchas Kohanim as Primary Tefillah

Okay, when we learn Hilchos Tefillah [Laws of Prayer], Birchas Kohanim, and the Rambam, for example, we’ll see that Birchas Kohanim is somehow a primary part of the tefillah. That seems to have to do with this, like, one of the first tefillahs said to exist are the tefillah, the bracha that the Kohen gives to the people.

And here again we see that there’s an interaction: the people come to the Beis HaMikdash and so on, and they’re not just coming to do their obligatory Karbanos and so on. The Kohen is also giving them a blessing. It’s a blessing for everything, so there’s a broad context to this whole thing of Beis HaMikdash. It’s not just like, bring Karbanos. And that connects us very much with what we’re saying, that the mitzvah is giving the broader context of the Mikdash and the Karbanos.

The Three Blessings — Their Structure and Content

So this is what it says: speak to Aaron and his children, this is how you’ll bless the nation, you’ll tell them:

Yevarechecha Hashem veyishmerecha [God will bless you and keep you] — so bless you is give you what you want, and God will watch you, right, keep you from dangers.

And then we have the bracha — we can see here that the bracha gets longer and nicer, so there’s a very nice ascending structure to these three brachos.

Yaer Hashem panav eleicha vichuneka [Hashem will shine His face to you and give you grace] — that’s very general, it doesn’t say what, right. All these brachos normally say specifics, they’re very general.

And the third one is Yisa Hashem panav eleicha veyasem lecha shalom [Hashem will raise His face to you and give you peace].

So you can see exactly, if you see in this picture, you can see exactly how this bracha is structured. It’s very nicely structured. It’s all very general, it’s receiving God’s light of His face, something like, everything is going well, or it is, yes, Hashem is going to care about you and give him His attention. Attention is a way to translate this in English.

The Theological Mechanism: Placing God’s Name

And now, Hashem is telling them, what this will be is, the blessing of the Kohen is really one way of understanding this: it’s putting God’s name on the people, and then, therefore, they’re getting their blessing. This reference is something that we’ve learned in the end of Parshas Yisro, in a place that is made that God’s name is put on, you receive a bracha, because God’s name brings a blessing.

So part of the Birchas Kohanim, God’s name is in the Beis HaMikdash, and so on. It says my name rests there. But now, when the Kohen puts God’s name, by saying Yevarechecha Hashem, and that’s what we said, it’s a very not specific bracha. It’s saying God’s face, God’s blessing, God’s attention will be on you. When God is with someone, then he has all the blessings. So that’s really the internal ritual, or the internal content of these blessings.

And that’s the end of this chapter.