Nazir 6

Sugya Map

• The Issue: The duration of an unspecified naziriteship (stama d'nazir).
• The Players: Bar Padda (29 days) vs. Rav Mattana (30 days).
• Nafka Mina: The status of the 30th day—is it the end of the first or the start of the second?
• Primary Sources: Nazir 6a, Numbers 6:5, Numbers 6:13.

Text Snapshot

Nazir 6a: "Rav Mattana could have said to you that it is as the latter clause teaches: The thirtieth day counts for both this and that... What is the novelty? Lest you say this principle applies only with regard to one term... the tanna therefore teaches us that part of the day is like that of an entire day."

Readings

• Rashi (6a s.v. Ana d'amina): Bar Padda asserts that stama d'nazir is inherently 29 days. He reads the Mishnah’s allowance of shaving on the 30th day not as a leniency of miktzat ha-yom, but as the natural conclusion of the term.
• Tosafot (6a s.v. Amar lach bar Padda): Argues that for Bar Padda, the 30th day serves a dual function: it completes the first term and initiates the second. The "novelty" is that even if one hasn't completed a full term, the part of the day acts as a bridge for the next obligation.

Friction

• Kushya: If Bar Padda holds 29 days is the term, why does the Mishnah need to teach that shaving on the 30th day "works"? It should be legally redundant.
• Terutz: Bar Padda distinguishes between l'chatchila (31st day) and b'dieved (30th day). The novelty is that the 30th day acts as a "hinge"—it is the first day of the second term, even while finalizing the first.

Intertext

• SA Yoreh Deah 374:1: The Halacha follows the standard of 30 days.
• Responsa: The debate mirrors the conceptual tension in Eruvin 43a regarding the boundaries of days (tosefet yom).

Psak/Practice

The Halacha follows the view that a stama term is 30 days. The "hinge" logic of the 30th day remains relevant in meta-psak regarding transitions between obligations—where one period of time acts as a buffer rather than a wall.

Takeaway

The debate isn't just arithmetic; it's about whether time is a series of discrete blocks or a fluid continuum where the end of one process is the necessary precondition for the next.