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As previously mentioned, the nezirus vow shares many of the laws applicable to vows in general (and which we discussed in Nedarim). These include the laws that: (a) one can be released from a vow by a sage or a panel of three people if proper grounds are found…i.e., when it is determined that there was some factor that the vower didn’t fully consider when making the vow and which — had it been considered — would have caused them to refrain from making such vow; and (b) a woman can be released from her vow by her father (when she is a child) and by her husband (once she is married). The first form of release by a sage or panel of three is called an “annulment” and retroactively cancels the vow, whereas the second form of release is called a “cancellation” and only prospectively cancels the vow.
This chapter discusses how these two types of releases impact people who have become nezirim under different circumstances. Among the cases considered are: the potential annulment of vows made successively by several people or by a husband and wife; a woman who violates a nezirus vow that her husband had previously cancelled without her knowledge; the status of an animal or money consecrated by a woman for her concluding offerings when her husband cancels her vow before they are offered; the time limit for a husband’s cancelation of his wife’s vow; and the validity of one’s declaration of his/her son to be a Nazir.
SOMETHING TO CONSIDER: On the one hand, being a Nazir seems to be a holy path rooted in the Torah. On the other hand, being a Nazir is not incumbent on everyone and, in fact, the Nazir must offer a sin offering at the end of the Nazirite term, implying that the entire exercise had been a sin. Is being a Nazir a positive or negative religious expression and why? Does the intention of the Nazir influence the answer?
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