If a person says, "I take on myself an obligation to bring birds (sacrifice)," – this also serves as a declaration that he is becoming a nazir. Since talking about Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel says that "His hair has grown like the feathers of an eagle" the person does a mental proximity search and, finding the two words "hair" and "eagle" (bird) close, he means the hair of a nazir when he refers to birds – this is the opinion of Rabbi Meir. The Sages, however, say that he is not a nazir because people do not do such proximity searches in their heads.
This explanation is hard to accept, though – not everybody is so knowledgeable. It could be that nobody does such searches. Instead, the man meant those birds that a nazir needs to bring if he becomes ritually impure – and this explains why Rabbi Meir says that he becomes a nazir. But perhaps he meant to pay for the bird sacrifice for someone else but not become a nazir himself? – We have to say that a nazir was passing before him.
The Sages, however, consider all these explanations of the point of view of Rabbi Meir as forced and say that the man does not become a nazir by promising a bird sacrifice.
Art: Exotic Pheasants and Other Birds By Charles Collins
No comments:
Post a Comment