Thursday, August 27, 2015

Nazir 4b: The anti-Narcissus

A brayta cited on Nazir 4b reminded me of Narcissus:
אמר שמעון הצדיק מימי לא אכלתי אשם נזיר טמא חוץ מאדם אחד שבא אלי מן הדרום יפה עינים וטוב רואי וקווצותיו סדורות לו תלתלים אמרתי לו בני מה ראית לשחת שער נאה זה אמר לי רועה הייתי לאבי בעירי והלכתי לשאוב מים מן המעיין ונסתכלתי בבבואה שלי ופחז יצרי עלי וביקש לטורדני מן העולם אמרתי לו ריקה מפני מה אתה מתגאה בעולם שאינו שלך שסופך להיות רמה ותולע' העבודה שאגלחך לשמי' עמדתי ונשקתיו על ראשו אמרתי לו כמותך ירבו נזירים בישראל עליך הכתוב אומר (במדבר ו, ב) איש כי יפליא לנדור נדר נזיר להזיר לה'
 Simon the Just17 said: In the whole of my life, I ate of the guilt-offering of a defiled nazirite [only once].18 This man who came to me from the South country, had beauteous eyes and handsome features with his locks heaped into curls. I asked him: ‘Why, my son, didst thou resolve to destroy such wonderful hair?’ He answered: ‘In my native town. I was my father's shepherd, and, on going down to draw water from the well, I used to gaze at my reflection [in its waters]. Then my evil inclination assailed me, seeking to compass my ruin,19 and so I said to it, "Base wretch! Why dost thou plume thyself on a world that is not thine own, for thy latter end is with worms and maggots. I swear20 I shall shear these locks to the glory of Heaven!"’ Then I rose, and kissed him upon his head. and said to him: ‘Like unto thee, may there be many nazirites in Israel. Of such as thou art, does the verse say, When a man shall clearly utter a vow, the vow of a nazirite to consecrate himself unto the Lord.’21

Compare this with Narcissus, who was described by Ovid as follows, in Book 3 of Metamorphosis. Note in particular the third paragraph ("Flat on the ground"), which describes his eyes, handsome features, and hair fit for Bacchus or Apollo:
 As Narcissus had scorned her, so he had scorned the other nymphs of the rivers and mountains, so he had scorned the companies of young men. Then one of those who had been mocked, lifting hands to the skies, said ‘So may he himself love, and so may he fail to command what he loves!’ 
There was an unclouded fountain, with silver-bright water, which neither shepherds nor goats grazing the hills, nor other flocks, touched, that no animal or bird disturbed not even a branch falling from a tree. Grass was around it, fed by the moisture nearby, and a grove of trees that prevented the sun from warming the place. Here, the boy, tired by the heat and his enthusiasm for the chase, lies down, drawn to it by its look and by the fountain. While he desires to quench his thirst, a different thirst is created. While he drinks he is seized by the vision of his reflected form. He loves a bodiless dream. He thinks that a body, which is only a shadow. He is astonished by himself, and hangs there motionless, with a fixed expression, like a statue carved from Parian marble.
Flat on the ground, he contemplates two stars, his eyes, and his hair, fit for Bacchus, fit for Apollo, his youthful cheeks and ivory neck, the beauty of his face, the rose-flush mingled in the whiteness of snow, admiring everything for which he is himself admired. Unknowingly he desires himself, and the one who praises is himself praised, and, while he courts, is courted, so that, equally, he inflames and burns. How often he gave his lips in vain to the deceptive pool, how often, trying to embrace the neck he could see, he plunged his arms into the water, but could not catch himself within them! What he has seen he does not understand, but what he sees he is on fire for, and the same error both seduces and deceives his eyes.
Fool, why try to catch a fleeting image, in vain? What you search for is nowhere: turning away, what you love is lost! What you perceive is the shadow of reflected form: nothing of you is in it. It comes and stays with you, and leaves with you, if you can leave!
The nazir realizes that this beauty and path would be his downfall - וביקש לטורדני מן העולם. Narcissus doesn't realize this and, unable to leave his reflection, drowns.

Nazir 2a -- What sort of language is Paziach?

The Mishna on Nazir 2a:

מתני' כל כינויי נזירות כנזירות האומר אהא הרי זה נזיר או אהא נאה נזיר נזיק נזיח פזיח הרי זה נזיר הריני כזה הריני מסלסל הריני מכלכל הרי עלי לשלח פרע הרי זה נזיר הרי עלי ציפורים ר"מ אומר נזיר וחכמים אומרים אינו נזיר:
Examples of kinuyim are נזיר נזיק נזיח פזיח.

1) What are these names? They sound like corruptions of Nazir, based on sound (rather than orthography as the mefaresh, which is questionably assigned to Rashi, asserts
אי משום דכי מחקת לרגל דקוף דנזיק ודופן דח' דנזיח וגגו דפ"א דפזיח ודופן ח' שבו משווית ליה נזיר:
). That is, the resh is a quasi-guttural, which is why is doesn't take a dagesh chazak, and so the chet as a switch-off is close. And the resh is pronounced to the back, which is like the kuf. A psilos (a Greek word indicating someone who has difficulty pronouncing letters) would say nazik instead of nazir. As in Yerushalmi Nazir 1b :

אמר ר' יוסי נראין דברים במקומות אחרים אבל במקום שקוראין לנזיר נזיק אנו אומרים נזיר פסילים אינו נזיר?

And swapping in the peh is a further switch-off from existing kinuyim.

2) Tosafot brings a machlokes from Nedarim 10a between Rabbi Yochanan and Resh Lakish as to the identity of these kinuyim. Tosafot writes:

נזיר נזיק נזיח פזיח הרי זה נזיר. לפי שרצה לפרש כל הכנויין פתח ואומר נזיר וכו' כלומר נזיר הוא עיקר השם הכתוב בתורה שעל ידי לשון זה חל עליו שם נזירות וה"ה אם אמר בלשון הכנויין כמו נזיק נזיח פזיח ורישא דמתניתין אתא לפרושי דקתני כל כינויי נזירות כנזירות ובכינויין נחלקו אמוראים בפ"ק דנדרים (דף י.) ר' יוחנן אומר לשון אומות הם פירוש שלש לשונות אלו משבעים לשונות הם ואם תאמר ולרבי יוחנן מאי איריא הנך ג' לשונות בכל ע' לשונות נמי אם קבל עליו נזירות באחד מהנך הלשונות חייל עליה הנזירות וי"ל דאה"נ דגם בשאר לשונות אם מכירם ומבינם ומתכוין לקבל עליו נזירות הוי נזיר אבל מהני לישני דמתניתין כי אמר נזרו באחד מן שלש לשונות הללו חייל עליה נזירות (נהי) נמי כי אין מתכוין משום דדמי טפי ללשון תורה מלשונות אחרים ור"ל פליג התם ואמר לשון שבדו חכמים מלבם והתם פריך אמאי בדינהו ותקינהו רבנן לשון כנויין והשיב דזימנין דבעי למימר לה' קרבן ואמר לה' גרידא ומפיק שם שמים לבטלה ולכך תקנו כנויין שלא הורגל הלשון לומר לה' קונם וא"ת ולר"ל איך יביא קרבן על ידי לשון שבדו חכמים הא קמייתי חולין בעזרה ויש לומר כיון דמתכוין לנדור בנזיר ויודע שלשון זה בדו חכמים לנדור בהם בנזיר קבלה גמורה היא כאילו אמר בלשון הכתוב בתורה והר"ר יחיאל פירש דר"ל לאו לענין קרבן קאמר אלא לענין מלקות דלקי אם עבר על נזירותו שקבל בלשון שבדו חכמים:
To take from the middle:
"... Rabbi Yochanan says that they are leshon umot [the language of the nations] -- to explain, these three alternative languages [words] are of from the seventy languages [of the nations]. And if you say, according to Rabbi Yochanan, why specifically these three languages? In any of the seventy
languages as well, if he accepted nezirut upon himself with one of these leshonot, the nezirut would apply to him. And one might answer that indeed it is so, that in other languages as well, if he recognizes and understands them, and intends to accept upon himself nezirut, he is a nazir. But with these leshonot of the mishna, when he says his nazir-ship with one of these three leshonot, the nezirut applies to him even if he doesn't intend, because it is more similar to the language of the Torah than other leshonot.
And Resh Lakish argues there and says that it is a language which the Chachamim invented..."
It is difficult to accept Rabbi Yochanan's explanation of kinuyim, as explained by Tosafot. The Mishna and gemara in question in Nedarim reads as follows:

משנה

  • האומר (לחבירו): "קונם", "קונח", "קונס", הרי אלו כינויין לקרבן.
"חרק", "חרך", "חרף", הרי אלו כינויין לחרם.
"נזיק", "נזיח", "פזיח", הרי אלו כינויין לנזירות.
"שבותה", "שקוקה", נודר במוהי, הרי אלו כינויין לשבועה:

גמרא

  • איתמר, כינויין. רבי יוחנן אמר: לשון אומות הן.
רבי שמעון בן לקיש אמר: לשון שבדו להם חכמים להיות נודר בו, וכן הוא אומר: "בחדש אשר בדא מלבו".

(a) These kinuyin are just so similar, in three or four categories, to their Hebrew equivalents. Perhaps we are talking about close Semitic languages, but I'd like to be able to identify the languages in question.
(b) Why would other languages have a word for Nazir, which is entirely a Biblical creation, with its own unique Biblical law?

I'd rather see this dispute between Rabbi Yochanan and Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish as:

Rabbi Yochanan: these wordings being organic, natural linguistic development by the people.
Resh Lakish: these wordings being jargon deliberately fabricated by Chazal.

How can leshon umot mean this? I would suggest that it is not leshon umot with a shuruk, but leshon omot with a cholam.

Look in Jastrow, page 27:


It is an "oath language". And in context, as a kinuy language for vows, oaths, charamim, and nezirut, it seems applicable. Sometimes people swap out words for similar words when making vows, because of the severity of it. Think e.g. Gosh instead of God.

A case I learned from Shir Hashirim 2:7:

ז  הִשְׁבַּעְתִּי אֶתְכֶם בְּנוֹת יְרוּשָׁלִַם, בִּצְבָאוֹת, אוֹ, בְּאַיְלוֹת הַשָּׂדֶה:  אִם-תָּעִירוּ וְאִם-תְּעוֹרְרוּ אֶת-הָאַהֲבָה, עַד שֶׁתֶּחְפָּץ.  {ס}7 'I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles, and by the hinds of the field, that ye awaken not, nor stir up love, until it please.' {S}

I swear by Tzevaot [Gazelles? Or Hashem Tzevakot?] or by the Aylot HaSadeh [Kel Shakkai].

3) It is interesting to note the parallel in Yerushalmi Nazir, 1b:
נזיק נזיח פזיק א"ר יוחנן לשונות שביררו להן ראשונים אין רשות לבירייה להוסיף עליהן והא תני ר' חייה רזיח הזיח א"ר שילא לשונות שביררו להן משניות אין רשות לבירייה להוסיף עליהן


Note how Rabbi Yochanan and Rabbi Shela both say ביררו, whose, rather than בדו, invented. One seems like the slip of the pen of the other.

Also, Rabbi Yochanan indicates that Rishonim [earlier generations] chose them, rather than this being the language of the Umot [nations]. And this is perhaps in contrast to the the language of the Mishnayot, as put forth by Rabbi Shela, and which might correspond to the position of Resh Lakish.

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Geonic input into Maseches Nazir

We started Maseches Nazir two days ago. Here is a link to a Daf Yomi shiur from Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz. I'll quote him from the 2:30 mark until the 2:56 mark:
The Rishonim already point out that the leshonos of the gemara in maseches Nazir are different from the leshonos of gemaras throughout the rest of Shas. That there are a lot of places in Nazir where things seem to be abbreviated; they seem to be formulated differently that they are in the rest of Shas; and it seems to be that the reason is that in the time of the Geonim, they didn't learn maseches Nazir in yeshivos, and any sefer that wasn't learned that much, a lot of mistakes crept in because there wasn't that much learning of it going on, where they were able to correct the mistakes. You'll find a lot of girsaos that were changed, nuschaos there were changed, by some of the later Acharonim, because it wasn't really taken care of in the earlier generations, since maseches Nazir wasn't really learned so much.
In fact, in the Tiferes Yisrael, in Pirkei Avos, in the second perek of Pirkei Avos, he writes, ודרך אפשר, that it could be that Rav Ashi, when he was mesader the Talmud, didn't get to produce a Mahadura Shniyah [second, revised edition] of Maseches Nazir, that for each of the other masechtas, he wrote a Mahadura Kamma, a first edition, and then he corrected it and made a Mahadura Shniyah. Maseches Nazir, what he have, is a Mahadura Kamma. This is what Shas would have looked like if Rav Ashi didn't have the time to review all the other masechtos. That is what the Tiferes Yisrael suggests, at least as a ודרך אפש. 
The first paragraph indicates, from Rishonim, that there was general Geonim input into our masechtos, something less present or absent in Nazir, which accounts for the difference in style. Is this just entropy -- errors that crept in during the copying process that were not corrected? What then with the abbreviations, or different formulations? The Tiferes Yisrael, meanwhile, seems to be suggesting that there was less of a work-over by the Setama DeGemara, but since he assumes an entire closing of the Talmudic canon [chasimas haTalmud] by Ravina and Rav Ashi, he puts this as a lack of a Mahadura Shniya.

Another way of looking at it (though I don't know what they say particularly about Nazir) is as many modern academic scholars say, that the editing of Talmud, in terms of expansive or simplifying language, or even whole sections of Setama DeGamara, extended into the times of the Geonim. If so, lack of Savoraic and Geonic attention to the masechta, or focus of different Savoraim and Geonim, could lead to a very different style.