Talmud - Nazir 64b נזיר ס״ד ב׳

Rav Hamnuna says: In the case of a nazirite and one performing the ritual of the Paschal offering who walked by a grave in the depths, i.e., an unknown grave, on their seventh day of their purification, i.e., seven days after they were sprinkled with the purification waters after having contracted ritual impurity imparted by a corpse, they are pure. If the nazirite shaved for his impurity and completed his naziriteship in purity or if the one performing the ritual of the Paschal offering sacrificed his offering, then when he eventually discovers the impurity, it is considered as though he were pure all along. What is the reason for this lenient ruling? It is because the ritual impurity imparted by a grave in the depths is not strong enough to negate their actions, i.e., the nazirite offerings or the Paschal offering.

Rava raised an objection to this ruling from the statement of the mishna that if there is one whose impurity imparted by a grave in the depths is uncertain and he descended to purify himself from the ritual impurity imparted by a corpse, he is impure, as a person or item that has the presumptive status of impurity remains impure, and one that has the presumptive status of purity remains pure. Here too, the nazirite and the one performing the ritual of the Paschal offering had not completed their purification at the time, as the seventh day following their being sprinkled had not ended. As their presumptive status is impure, they are retroactively rendered impure, even by an impurity of the depths.

Rav Hamnuna said to Rava: I agree with you with regard to a nazirite who descended to purify himself and who is lacking the act of shaving. He has yet to shave his head for his impurity and is therefore not completely pure. Consequently, he follows his prior presumptive status of impurity.

Rava said to him: I, too, agree with you with regard to one performing the ritual of the Paschal offering that he is pure, as he is not lacking anything. Since he does not have to perform any action on his body before he can bring an offering, one can say that he already has a presumptive status of purity on the seventh day. Abaye said to him: But he is still lacking sunset, i.e., he is not fully pure until the sun sets on the seventh day. Rava said to Abaye: The sun sets by itself, and therefore this cannot be seen as a deficiency involving an action.

The Gemara comments: And even Abaye accepted Rava’s answer and retracted, as can be seen from that which is taught in a baraita. By Torah law, a woman who gives birth to a boy is ritually impure for seven days, and a woman who gives birth to a girl is impure for fourteen days. At that point, the woman immerses in a ritual bath and is purified. Any blood that emerges from the woman during her days of purity, i.e., for forty days following the birth of a male and eighty days following the birth of a female, does not render her impure. She cannot bring the offering brought by a woman who has given birth or miscarried until she has immersed at the end of these days (see Leviticus, chapter 12). The baraita discusses a case where a woman who had given birth became pregnant and miscarried before she had brought her offering for the first birth.

The baraita teaches: If a woman miscarried on the day of the fulfillment of her purity, on the eighty-first day after a female, she must bring a separate offering for the miscarried fetus, as she was obligated to bring one offering before her miscarriage. If she miscarried during the fulfillment, i.e., before the conclusion of the eighty days for the birth of a daughter, she does not bring two offerings but only one, just as is the halakha in the case of one who gives birth to twins.

The baraita continues: One might have thought that she should not bring an offering for her childbirth, i.e., miscarriage, that occurred before the fulfillment of the days of her purity but she should bring for her childbirth that occurred after its completion. In other words, if she had yet another miscarriage, after the days of her purity for her initial birth but within the eighty days of purity following her first miscarriage, she should bring an extra offering and thereby discharge both obligations, of her birth and her final miscarriage.

Therefore, to counteract this possibility, the verse states: “And when the days of her purity are fulfilled…she shall bring” (Leviticus 12:6). This teaches that it is only if she miscarried on the day of the fulfillment itself that she must bring an offering for a miscarriage, but if she miscarried before the fulfillment of the days of her purity of the earlier miscarriage, even if this occurred more than eighty days after the first birth, she does not bring another offering.

Rav Kahana said in explanation: Here it is different. The reason why she does not bring an offering for a miscarriage during her days of purity is that she lacks the possibility of bringing her offering. Since she cannot bring her offering until the end of her term of purity, she cannot incur another obligation during this period, no matter how many births occur within eighty days of the previous one. However, this leads Rav Kahana to ask: There too, if she had a miscarriage on the day of the completion of her term, she cannot bring her offering either, as she lacks sunset. Why, then, must she bring an additional offering?

Abaye said to Rav Kahana: The sun sets by itself and is not considered a deficiency with regard to her purity. This discussion shows that Abaye accepted Rava’s reasoning, as he submitted the same argument himself in a different context.

MISHNA: One who finds a corpse for the first time, i.e., he discovers a single corpse in a place that was not previously established as a cemetery, if the corpse is lying in the usual manner of Jewish burial, he removes it from there and also its surrounding earth. It is assumed that this corpse was buried there alone. There is no concern that this area is a cemetery and therefore the corpse may not be moved, nor does one take into account the possibility that another corpse may be buried in the vicinity.

Similarly, if he found two corpses, he removes them and their surrounding earth. In a case where he found three corpses, if there is a space between this corpse and that corpse of four to eight cubits, in a standard design, this is a graveyard. There is a concern that this might be an ancient cemetery.

Traduction : The William Davidson digital edition of the Koren Noé Talmud, with commentary by Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz.

Nazir 64b explores whether a nazirite or Paschal offering participant remains pure after passing an unknown grave during purification.