Nazir, Chapter 8, Mishnah 2. This chapter contains only two mishnayos, yet they are among the longest and most intricate in all of Shas. Our mishnah is somewhat shorter than the one before it, but it is no less complex. It deals with a person who accepted nezirus upon himself and about whom two doubts have arisen: a doubt whether he became tamei with the tumah of a corpse - a tumah that obligates him to begin counting his nezirus anew, to shave his head and to bring korbanos; and a doubt whether he is a confirmed metzora, meaning that his tzaraas is certain and carries a sign of tumah, which likewise obligates him in shaving and in korbanos.
Introduction - the shaving of the metzora and the shaving of the nazir:
The metzora: After he is healed of his tzaraas he shaves his entire body and brings the birds - which are not a korban and are not offered in the Beis HaMikdash but outside of it. Seven days later he performs a second shaving of his head and body, and on the eighth day he brings his korbanos.
The nazir who became tamei: He must shave his head, and after the shaving he brings his korbanos and begins his nezirus anew.
Two principles on which the ruling rests:
The shaving of the metzora always precedes the shaving of the nazir - he must first be rid of the matter of tzaraas.
A metzora may shave his head even though he is a nazir, as is derived from the exposition of the verse. But this ruling was stated specifically regarding a certain metzora; when it is in doubt whether he is a metzora, there is no certain obligation to shave before us, and we do not shave the head of a nazir for the needs of tzaraas out of doubt. Therefore, any shaving performed for the needs of tzaraas must be arranged in a way that he will not thereby transgress his nezirus.
If he is not a nazir who became tamei but a nazir who is tahor, he cannot shave his head at all; rather he must wait thirty days until he completes his nezirus.
The mishnah opens: "Nazir shehayah tamei besafek umuchlat besafek" - a nazir about whom it is in doubt whether he became tamei and in doubt whether he is a confirmed metzora.
"Ochel bekodashim achar shishim yom":
A metzora does not eat kodashim, since he has the status of one who is lacking atonement - until he brings his korbanos after the second seven days of waiting he is not permitted in kodashim. Were he a certain metzora, he would become permitted in kodashim after only seven days: a first shaving upon his healing, a wait of seven days, a second shaving, and on the eighth day the bringing of his korbanos. But the nazir before us does not eat kodashim until sixty days have passed.
The reason for this lies in the two additional doubts that stand here. Perhaps he is not a metzora at all, and if so, perhaps he is a nazir who is tahor - and therefore he cannot shave his head until thirty days are complete, upon the completion of his nezirus. On the other hand, perhaps he is a nazir who became tamei, in which case the shaving after the thirty days is only the shaving of the nezirus of tumah, and his nezirus is not complete until another thirty days pass.
It emerges that although the metzora requires two shavings, there is no way to arrange them other than within sixty days: one shaving after thirty days, in case he is a nazir who is tahor, and a second shaving after another thirty days, in case he was a nazir who became tamei and his shaving of purity was pushed off to the end of the second count. These two shavings can serve at the same time as the two shavings of the metzora as well. And if in truth he is a metzora, then the two shavings are not for nezirus at all but for his tzaraas; it is only because it is not known with certainty that he is a metzora that this waiting is required, for if he truly is a metzora, he is permitted to shave his head even though he is a nazir.
"Veshoseh yayin umitamei lemeisim":
Drinking wine and becoming tamei to a corpse - that is, the completion of his nezirus - are permitted to him only after one hundred and twenty days. At the end of the first sixty days he has finished the side of tzaraas, and since the shaving of the metzora always comes first, this portion has been concluded. Now, on the possibility that he is a nazir who is tahor, he must wait another thirty days; but perhaps he was a nazir who became tamei, in which case the shaving after the sixty - on the ninetieth day - is the shaving of the nezirus of tumah, and the shaving after it, at the end of another thirty days, is the shaving of the nezirus of purity. Therefore one cannot say with certainty that he may drink wine and become tamei to a corpse until after one hundred and twenty days.
"Tiglachas hanega dochah tiglachas hanazir":
With this the mishnah sums up the reason for everything stated: the shaving of the affliction overrides the nazir's prohibition of shaving, but only when the matter is certain - when it is clearly known that the person is a metzora. Were he a certain metzora, he would shave, wait seven days, shave again, and on the eighth day bring his korbanos; and afterward he would wait sixty days - thirty for the nezirus of tumah and thirty for the nezirus of purity. But when the matter is in doubt, and it is not known whether he truly is a metzora, the shaving of the affliction does not have the power to override the nazir's prohibition of shaving, and therefore between the two shavings of the metzora he must wait thirty days - in case he is not truly a metzora but truly a nazir.
In summary: In this mishnah we learned the ruling concerning a nazir about whom it is in doubt whether he became tamei and in doubt whether he is a confirmed metzora. Since the shaving of the metzora precedes the shaving of the nazir, and since the shaving of the affliction overrides the nazir's prohibition of shaving only in a case of certainty and not in a case of doubt, the two shavings of the metzora are pushed off to a count of sixty days, at the end of which he is permitted to eat kodashim. The completion of the nezirus itself - drinking wine and becoming tamei to a corpse - is pushed off until one hundred and twenty days: sixty for the side of tzaraas, thirty for the nezirus of tumah and thirty for the nezirus of purity.