Parashat Hashavua: Nasso
Parshat Naso introduces us to the character of a nazir, one who takes a vow to abstain from grape products, haircuts, and contact with the dead. Jewish tradition contains a range of attitudes towards the institution of nezirut. In a passage that our 11th grade students study, the prophet Amos mentions nezirim alongside prophets as religious role models for the rest of the nation (Amos 2:11-12). This juxtaposition implies that Amos has a favorable view of nezirut as a means to achieve greater spiritual heights.
Other Jewish scholars view the nazir less favorably. In a celebrated Talmudic passage (Nedarim 10a), Rabbi Elazar HaKappar teaches:
[The nazir’s sin] is that he caused himself suffering by refraining from wine… Just as he who causes himself suffering only by refraining from wine is called a sinner, one who causes himself suffering by refraining from everything is all the more so considered [a sinner].
The opposing attitudes toward the nazir speak to a relatable dilemma that many of us experience: When do abstinence and self-restraint inspire growth, and when do they lead us to extremes or cut us off from the world around us? The multiple perspectives on nezirut force us to hold both possibilities.
One famous rabbinic story captures this tension beautifully. The Talmud (Nedarim 9b) recounts a story about Shimon HaTzaddik (Simeon the Just):
One time, a particular man who was a nazirite came from the South and I saw that he had beautiful eyes and was good looking, and the fringes of his hair were arranged in curls. I said to him: My son, what did you see that made you decide to destroy this beautiful hair of yours?
He said to me: I was a shepherd for my father in my city, and I went to draw water from the spring, and I looked at my reflection in the water and my evil inclination quickly overcame me… I said to myself: Wicked one! Why do you pride yourself in a world that is not yours… I swear that I shall shave you for the sake of Heaven.
Shimon HaTzaddik responded that this was the kind of nazir he admired — not someone rejecting the physical world altogether, but someone thoughtfully and purposefully accepting the restrictions of nezirut in order to rein in his worst inclinations and refine his character.
The laws of the nazir - and the range of Jewish of traditional perspectives on them, challenge us to balance our conflicting impulses: we must assess when imposing restrictions on our conduct will rein in unhealthy excesses and lead us to greater spiritual heights, and when they will lead us to unhealthy withdrawal from society and deny us pleasures and experiences that the Torah wished for us to enjoy.
Rabbi Ezra Frazer
