The Holiness of the Nazir: Letting his Hair Grow

Rambam, Sefer HaMitzvos, Aseh 92

The nazir is to separate himself, and refrain from otherwise permitted pleasures, because of his vow for thirty days. Holiness means separation from something. The root letters, Kuf Daled Shin, for example in the word kiddushin, marriage, means that the wife is now separated from all other women, holy, sanctified, dedicated and permitted only to her husband.

There are three things a nazir must refrain from during the period of his nezirus:
1. Wine or any grape product
2. Cutting his hair
3. Coming near a dead body even for immediate family members

The Rambam in Sefer HaMitzvos, Aseh 92, explains:
The Mitzvah of the Nazir is to let his hair grow, as it says, "...he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow." The Mechilta says, "He shall be holy: he shall let his locks grow in holiness; He shall let the locks...grow long: this is an aseh, a positive commandment. Where do we learn that a lav, a negative commandment, also is involved? From the words: no razor shall come upon his head."
What if he removes his hair without a razor? What if he uses depilatory chemicals?
In that case he has not transgressed on the negative commandment but he has violated the positive commandment to let his hair grow long.
The Rambam says that according to his principles for counting commandments, a negative derived from a positive equals a positive commandment.

The Gemara teaches that a nazir is a sinner for taking on the nezirus. In Nedarim 10a we read:

R. Eleazar ha-Kappar Berabbi, as it was taught: And he shall make atonement for him, for that he sinned against a soul. Against which ‘soul’ then has he sinned? But it is because he afflicted himself through abstention from wine. Now, does not this afford an argument from the minor to the major? If one, who afflicted himself only in respect of wine, is called a sinner: how much more so one who ascetically refrains from everything. Hence, one who fasts is called a sinner.

But doesn't the Torah also call him a kadosh, holy? How can he be both holy and a sinner at the same time?

There are three possible reasons why he became a nazir:
1. He wants to inflict pain on himslef to atone for his sins, hence the he refrains from from doing something that is normally permitted.
2. He wants to subjugate his evil inclination toward sins that drive his passion.
3. He just wants to cause himself pain like crazies for no good reason.

For the first two reasons he may be holy, but for the third reason he is a sinner and a meshugeneh.

The Ramban in Parshas Kedoshim says that the mitzvah to be holy means to separate yourself from things that are permitted, kadesh atzmecha be-mutar lecha.

(To be continued)