Nazir 16: Pausing When We Make a Mistake - Tallying the Days

Perek III begins today with a Mishna that clarifies past Mishnaot.  This Mishna makes me question, again, the origin of the Mishnaot.  Even more so, the origin of the baraitot.  But I digress. This first Mishna reminds us that a nazirite shaves on the thirty-first day of his/her nazirut. Shaving on the thirtieth day is fine.  If s/he specified that s/he will be a nazirite for thirty days, however, the full thirty days must be without haircutting.  This extends to those who are nazirites for two terms; one must shave thirty days after his/her first term ends.  Rabbi Pappeyas confirms this tally.  But if one becomes ritually impure on the thirtieth day of a thirty day term - or the hundredth day of a one-hundred day term of nazirut, the rabbis disagree about how many days are negated retroactively by this change in status.  Seven days? Thirty days? All one hundred days?

A second Mishna throws a complication into the vow of nazirut.  If one takes a vow of nazirut in a cemetery, the days s/he spends in that cemetery do not count toward his/her term of nazirut.  Since s/eh cannot begin the obligations of nazirut until leaving the cemetery, s/he is not liable to bring the offerings of impurity - a turtledove or pigeon as a sin offering, another similar bird as a burnt-offering, and a sheep as a guilt offering.    However, if s/he leaves the cemetery having taken this vow and then returns, s/he is liable to bring the offerings of impurity.  Rabbi Eliezer suggests that the first day is not counted, and thus if this person vows and then leaves the cemetery and returns all on the same day, offerings are not in order.  His/her term of nazirut does not begin being tallied until the second day (Numbers 6:12).

The rabbis disagree about the validity of a vow of nazirut taken in a cemetery.  Perhaps, suggest Reish Lakish believes, nazirut does not take place at all in such circumstances. Rabbi Yochanan agrees with the case stated in the Mishna.  One of his arguments ends our daf.  We know that a nazirite incurs forty lashes if s/he drinks wine, shaves his/her hair, or comes into contact with a corpse.  If nazirut does not take effect because of the nazirite being in a state of ritual impurity - in a cemetery - then why is s/he still liable to receive those lashes?

As amud (a) of daf 17 suggests, the rabbis are concerned about when the tally begins and when the tally is paused or stopped because of transgressions.  I might extrapolate from this that our rabbis were concerned both about the halachot of nazirut, about the concept of beginnings and endings - specificity of our actions, and about how negative behaviour should be addressed in the moment.  If someone does something 'wrong', should we wait and recount that time spent later on?  No, the rabbis argue, there must be a pause to address any wrongdoing, whether that is in one's state of nazirut or in other parts of our lives.