HEBREW WORD STUDY – THE NAZARITE – נזר Nun Zayin Resh

Numbers 6:16: “And the priest shall bring [them] before the LORD, and shall offer his sin offering, and his burnt offering:

According to the laws of the nazir or those who take a Nazarite vow at the conclusion they must offer a sin offering. This is really curious considering the nature of the Nazarite vow. The word Nazarite comes from the Hebrew word nazir which means to separate. The purpose of the vow was to totally separate oneself from the physical world so that your focus will be totally on God. We have all heard the mocking statement from sanctimonious Christians that someone is so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly good. Well, the Bible teaches that there is a time and place for such an attitude and it is called taking a Nazarite vow. It is a vow to separate yourself from this world so you can place your entire focus on God. There were three conditions to this vow. One must not consume anything from a grapevine, they could not cut their hair and they could not come in contact with a dead body.

There were three classes of nazir or Nazarite. The most common was the one performed by the Apostle Paul soon after his conversion. One would take an oath to be a Nazarite for a set amount of time which was usually a month. After the period of time ends he cuts his hair burns it on the altar and then offers a sin offering and a peace/fellowship offering

The second class is a Nazarite for life. This is like the prophet Samuel who had to keep all the laws of the Nazarite except that he could cut his hair after twelve months if it became too heavy, but he had the cut the hair himself, no one else could do it. His parents took the Nazarite vow for him when he was born. Such an individual kept the vows all the way up to the age of thirteen where he was considered capable of making a vow on his own. He then could either request an annulment of the vow his parents made or he could continue as a Nazarite and take the vow himself.

The third class is the Nazarite is from the womb as Samson. Heaven declares such an individual a Nazarite for life, no vows are taken. The angel of the Lord appeared to Samson’s mother and said he would be a Nazarite, no ifs, its or buts about it. There was no annulment and he could not cut his hair even if it got too heavy. Ancient Judaism taught that your hair was not alive but dead. At death, you pass from this life to a spiritual life. According to the Yoreh De’ah 203:7 which is a compilation of the Halakha The Nazarite’s hair is transformed into the supernatural racham which is latent within the partzuf Atik Yomin, that is the divine persona or characteristic of the Ancient of Days which is an expression of God’s eternality. So, the hair became symbolic of your future eternal spiritual life. Many believed there were mystical spiritual powers in the hair. Native Americans believed this and let their hair grow for this reason.

During this time, one was not to consume anything that came from a grapevine or even approach a vineyard or anyone who consuming grapes or wine. The idea behind this is that the Nazarite was to be separate from the world and not partake of any of the pleasures of this world. The nazarite was to spend his time under the vow to draw as close to God as possible and that meant denying oneself the pleasures of this world.

This is why I find it interesting that at the conclusion of the vow the Nazarite had to offer a sin offering. One wonders what sin they would commit while under the Nazarite vow. The word sin for sin offering is chatah which is missing the mark or the target.

According to the Talmud in the Tractate Nazir, a Nazarite by the very nature of his vow will commit a sin or miss the mark or standard of God because he denies himself the pleasures that God has given to the world to enjoy.

God has given us many pleasures, many gifts in this world for our enjoyment. As a loving parent, He wants us to indulge in these pleasures. It is sort of like when parents give their child a gift. They want that child to enjoy the gift. If the child turns up his nose at the gift and ignores it, it will hurt the parents and break their hearts. Wine is a symbol of a pleasure given by God. As with any pleasure or gift, there are limits. Drink too much wine and you get drunk, that is not God’s intended pleasure to be drawn from wine God even commands the drinking of wine like during Passover and Succoth, but places very strict boundaries on the use of the wine that one does not drink into excess.

God meant for us to enjoy our time on earth. In fact, he loves for us to be happy and to enjoy the many pleasures he gave us in this world. Adam was instructed to enjoy all the fruits of the Garden of Eden. Like a parent watching their child draw pleasure from a gift they gave their child, they draw pleasures watching him enjoy it. Yet, there was one pleasure Adam was denied and when he partook of it sin entered the world and many of the pleasures became tainted with sin. Yet, there were still many pleasures that God created for us to enjoy and by not enjoying these pleasures we miss the mark that God set for us and He is disappointed that we turned our noses upon his gifts or we are too busy to draw pleasure from His gifts.

Some of these gifts are spiritual like music, craftsmen skills, artistic skills, etc. Some are spiritual gifts like hospitality, offering comfort, teaching or preaching. If we shun these gifts, covet the gifts of other, gifts we do not have, it breaks God’s heart. When that happens we have sinned.