Sunday, April 06, 2008

Nazir 18a - Tu'ma Arichta

The gemara says that if a nazir would become tamei multiple times, so long as he has not entered a state where he is ready to begin his nezirus ta'hara, we consider the multiple tu'mos to be tu'ma arichta - one long tu'mah. Therefore even if he came into contact with tu'mah many times, he would only be chayev one korban. We have a machlokes at what point will a new tu'mah require him to bring a new set of korbanos (R' Yossi bar yehuda holds that nezirus tahara begins on day 7, and Rebbi holds that it begins on day 8, but both agree that if he would become tamei on day 7 from his original tu'mah he would not require a new set of korbanos, but if he became tamei on day 8 even prior to bringing korbanos he would have to bring a whole new set of korbanos. Rabbonon hold that if he became tamei prior to bringing his chatos, he would not require a new set, but after his chatos he would require a new set. R' Yishmael holds that if he became tamei prior to bringing his asham he would not require a new set, after bringing his asham he would require a new set); BUT all agree that if he becomes tamei multiple times between day 1 and day 7 he would only require one set of korbanos at the end.
Although regarding the korbanos we consider multiple tu'mos to be a tu'mah arichta. However, regarding malkus for violating the l'av of tu'mah, we consider each act of tu'mah to be a seperate violation (even though he was already ta'maei) and receives malkus for each time he was warned and came into contact with tu'mah. This is clear in the Rambam (Avel 3:4) by a kohen:
וכן אם נגע במת והתרו בו ופירש וחזר ונגע והתרו בו אפילו מאה פעמים לוקה על כל אחת ואחת, היה נוגע ולא פירש או שהיה עומד בבית הקברות ונגע במתים אחרים, אע"פ שהתרו בו כמה פעמים אינו לוקה אלא אחת שהרי מחולל ועומד כל זמן שלא פירש
Similarly by a nazir, he is chayev malkus for every act of coming into contact with tu'mah, even though he would only be chayev one set of korbanos for his tu'mah.

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