Torah Study Blog

In Numbers 6 we learn what it means to take the vow to become a nazirite. Anyone, man or woman, can utter the vow to become a nazirite (but in this blog I will use male pronouns simply because it is easier for me). A nazirite must not eat or drink anything that comes from grapes: wine, raisins, etc. A nazirite must never cut the hair on his head. And a nazirite must never be close to a dead person, including close relatives. If a nazirite comes close to a dead person by accident, he must shave his head and make a hefty animal sacrifice to purify himself again. The hair that he shaves off is then burnt as an offering to God.

The rules for being a nazirite are quite stringent – even more stringent than the rules for being a priest in the Temple! The root of the word nazirite is nazir, which means “to set aside.” People who take this vow are setting themselves aside for God. To be clear, the wording in Numbers indicates that this a vow entered into voluntarily by an adult. Priests, meanwhile, are born into their positions and have no term limits. And they are allowed to drink wine and have other grape products.

Scholars believe that the prohibition against grapes reflects the belief that grapes represent the corrupting influence of civilization. Many agricultural products can be planted and harvested in the course of one season. Grapes take many years to cultivate, therefore they can only be a product of people who are tied to one piece of land for a very long time. This thought is reflected in a story in Jeremiah 35 that tells of a group of people who were advised by their ancestors not to drink wine so that they can live in tents throughout the land.

Also, according to Genesis 9, when Noah came off the ark he was the first person to plant a vineyard. Noah drank wine, became drunk and then lay down, naked in his tent. His son, Ham, walked in and saw his naked father and told his two brothers about it. This was an embarrassment to Noah and Noah cursed Ham. This is a danger of wine – wine is corrupting!

The Torah spells out the prohibitions of what a nazirite cannot do, but the Torah does not tell us exactly what nazirites do do. This leads scholars to the conclusion that the general public at the time of writing knew what nazirites did. Today, we have to look for clues in the Torah to try to understand more about nazirites.

The Torah tells us that the term of being a nazirite has an end. We have no idea what the length of the term is but, similar to if a nazirite comes close to a dead person, a hefty animal sacrifice must be made to signify the end of the term.

Therefore, we believe nazirites must have been people of wealth. The two required animal sacrifices, 1) if defiled by coming into contact with a dead person and, 2) at the end of their term, were expensive! Those who chose to take the nazirite vow were people who had access to wealth.

God told the Prophet Amos, “I raised up prophets from among your sons and nazirites from among your young men.” Clearly, the nazirites were highly regarded people – right up there with the prophets!

Although we read that becoming a nazirite is voluntary and has a term limit, there are two life-long nazirites in the Bible; Samson & the prophet Samuel. Both Samson and Samuel help the Israelites to overcome the Philistines. So now we know that delivering us from the Philistines is also a nazirite duty.

The arrival of Samson is foretold in Judges 13. A barren woman is told she will have a child who will, “be a nazirite to God from the womb on.” She, the mother of the nazirite, must not drink wine and she must not let his hair be cut. Apparently, Samson had no say in this matter. The stories of Samson indicate that he drank wine, and that he was in contact with dead people fairly often as he was responsible for killing a lot of Philistine people!

The mother of Samuel, Hannah, was also barren and prayed for a child. Hannah promised in I Samuel 1 that she, “will dedicate him to the Lord for all the days of his life; and no razor shall ever touch his head.” Although our current text, which was standardized around the 9^th century CE, does not specifically say that Samuel was a nazir, fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls show Hannah clearly stating, “I will make him a nazir.” Samuel was the prophet that anointed King Saul who led a revolt against the Philistines.

The hair of the nazirites was not cut, but scholars believe it was also not beautifully coiffed. The hair was left to grow wild, or untamed. There is a theory that thousands of years ago there was a class of warriors who were distinguished by their untamed hair. Hair is considered a magical thing because it grows throughout your entire life, and it keeps growing even after you die. People believed that hair is the seat of human vitality and life-force.

Scholars believe the oldest part of the Bible is the battle hymn referred to as The Song of Deborah, which can be found in Judges 5. An early verse in the poem says:

When locks go untrimmed in Israel

When people dedicate themselves –

Bless the Lord!

Join us next week as Rabbi Jaech takes us further into why someone would want to be a nazir and what the Rabbis taught their disciples about these very interesting people.

misquotes or misunderstandings in what Rabbi Jaech taught us are the responsibility of Tara Keiter