Nedarim 4: On Vows and Nazirite Vows

If a person takes a nazirite vow while in a cemetery, when does nazirut begin?  Immediately after leaving the cemetery?  After becoming ritually pure?  One must not delay, as we learned in yesterday's daf.  What about shaving after completing one's time as a nazir?  Must that be done immediately?  Is that delay a transgression worthy of punishment?  Or is shaving following being a nazir of less consequence?

The rabbis want to understand why the nazirite vows are juxtaposed with other vows.  Perhaps it is the offerings, suggests the Gemara.  A nazir must bring a burnt offering, a sin offering and a peace offering at the conclusion of her/his vow.  How might a delay in bringing those offerings compare with a delay in bringing the sin-offering of forbidden fat (usually used to atone for consuming forbidden fat)?   

A sin offering of forbidden fat comes for atonement, but a nazirite has nothing to atone for.  The Gemara notes that a woman who has given birth does not atone, either, but she brings a sin offering, too.  And her offerings - either a lamb under one year (sin) and a pigeon or turtledove (burnt) or, if she is poor, two turtledoves or two young pigeons - must not be delayed or she is subject to a consequence.  If she is married to a kohen, this allows her to partake of consecrated food.

A note in the Steinsaltz translation teaches us about ritual purity and offerings for women who have given birth.  If she has a girl, the mother is considered ritually impure for 14 days. Then she immerses in the mikvah.  She is ritually pure for the next sixty-six days, but she cannot enter the Temple or partake of consecrated food until a total of 80 days have passed.  At that time she brings the offerings listed above, resulting in her ritual purity.  From the mikvah on, she is ritually pure for all other purposes, even if she experiences uterine bleeding.  That blood is thought of as different from menstrual blood.  If a woman has a boy, she is ritually impure only 7 days, followed by mikvah immersion.  After thirty-three more days, totalling forty days, she brings offerings to the Temple and is more fully ritually pure.

The Gemara then looks at another possible reason for the juxtapositioning of vows and nazirite vows: nullification of vows.  But Torah law regarding nullification of women's vows by their fathers or husbands should cover nazirite vows as well.  Why would the juxtapositioning be necessary?  Perhaps the time limit is important here - nazirite vows are limited to thirty days, where other vows have no time limit.

Our daf ends with a conversation regarding substitute vows.  The rabbis discuss the necessity of specific wording.  Should a person be held to their vow always, even if the wording is unusual, or should that wording have to include something specific, like "I am avowed from you with regard to that which I eat"?  This specificity might result in a vow that is not as intended.  Perhaps one wished to distance oneself from that person; to reject any benefit that might come from that person regardless of whether it was related to food.