The Voluntary Nazir of Today נזיר הנדב היום

These notes on the Tehillim, Mishna Nazir, and later Halakha explore how a voluntary "Nazir Nadava" can be a "harm reduction" alternative or adjunct to Alcoholics Anonymous and other spiritual programs of recovery from addiction, in our days of exile where full nazirut is not possible due to the absence of a temple wherein to fulfill the vow. It describes overcoming addictions to candy, or as in my case, to techno-idolatry. This program of "temporary abstinence" and lifelong teshuvah is suggested to Beit Teshuvah and other recovery programs that practice a synthesis of AA with Jewish spirituality and ritual. See also the primary biblical source texts, assumed by my Analysis and our Mishnayot. In modern Hebrew the word Nazir refers to monks and holy orders generally - Hindu, Buddhist, and Roman catholic monks are all called Nazirs: therefore the practice doesn't have such a good reputation. See he.wikipedia.org/wiki/נזיר for example. A key distinction is that Jewish "monks" don't abstain from marriage or renounce worldly possessions. The Essenes practice of celibacy and communism was foreign to Judaism, and is considered heretical today, as it was at the time this sect flourished, Even the apostle and pharisee Paul disapproved. The holy order of Nazirut in Judaism is not life-long but temporary. While abstinence from sexual immorality is signal motivation suggested by the teaching of this mitzvah immediatley after that of the sacrifice of bitter waters of jealousy for the "sotah", the wayward wife, nevertheless Nazirut is NOT an abstinence from but rather encouragement toward marriage, family, and children.

Although a "mitnadev" today in exile does not have an obligation to keep his resolution of abstinence or possess the ritual holiness commensurate with a solemn vow, nevertheless, our Mishna can inform or inspire such a practice of voluntary and temporary abstinence. A voluntary pledge of abstinence from alcohol and from impurity for a specified period that defaults to 30 days, can help in recovery and self-reconsecration to G-d. By inference the abstinence is also from idolatry and sexual immorality if one has been drawn after or enmeshed in it - which are often the result of drunkeness - and this abstinence should remain permanent. After the person learns how to drink with "temperance", he or she is not merely an "alcoholic in recovery", but a "RecoverED alcoholic" - something that many claim is impossible, but which is possible with God. The resolution can be undertaken as many times as necessary until full recovery is realized.

The Nazir nadavah, at the end of his or her term, and with the money he saved by not squandering it on self-indulgence and immorality, may sponsor a kiddush or seudah on a Sabbath or Sukkot as mark of his graduation from the program of recovery. The cost is ordinarily three lambs, and a basket of baked loaves with their libations: see the primary source sheet for details. If he is poor and the cost is prohibitive, he could say at the outset "I will undertake birds" הרה עלי ציפורים and bring two kosher birds at the conclusion of his term. Or else or friends and family can co-sponsor by pledging money "to shave" the Nazir and provide the offering, which will be an encouragement to him or her to persevere. In no such event should a beracha be recited that contains the formula "qidshanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu" on such and such, because this proposed ritual is NOT commanded in any received rabbinic tradition, AFAIK. It is my chiddush, now suggested as a ritual accompaniment to the dissolution of a vow, or to the end of a voluntary pledge, as an act of hasidut and mitnadev.

A ritual meal with psalms of praise is more spiritually elevating and refined than saying "kol nidrei", which is overrated and overused in my humble opinion, and has been controversial since its inception.

A ritual meal with storytelling, Torah discussion, and psalms of praise, is also more meaningful and will likely be more successful at transmitting Torah values, than merely buying an Aliyah, which is also somewhat overrated and overused, in my humble opinion.

The Rambam and other halakhic decisors provide ways for vows to be dissolved by a qualified Rav - so please take this source sheet to yours and seek his informed opinion.

Thus the "addict who still suffers" will learn "do the right about-face and learn to drink like a gentleman, and she like a lady". At AA and in the mental illness/pharmaceutical industry, they will have to say "our hats are off to him", as they should be. Thus the Torah will get the respect that it deserves for its superior psychology, ethics, politics, and natural philosophy.

Otherwise, see the penultimate sources in this essay for the Rambam's halakha on how to fulfill the Nazirite vow, which should be interesting to anyone who cares about authentic religious Zionism. Last in order but first in intention, see Psalm 22 and Psalm 116 for the prophetic significance of the performative utterance "I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people." May the Merciful One accept this Torah study and its publication as a good-faith effort at fulfillment.

The resolution can also be undertaken when there is no problem with drunkeness or alcholism, simply as an act of devotion and sanctification unto godliness. I typically undertake several terms per year, and am seeking a Jewish community interested letting me sponsor a kiddush or shabbat seudah shlishit, in its honor, and helping me co-create a liturgy or ritual - which the Merciful One may accept as a substitute for the Nazirite ceremonial sacrifices just as he accepts our prayers and tzedaqah today as substitute for the qorbanot. If and when this ritual happens, I pledge to add a second pledge to "shave a Nazir" from among their community, if one were to be inspired by my example to volunteer. הרה עלי לגלח

Drinking only on the holidays or times of joy - such as at the end of the work week - the Sabbath, the holy weekend - and not on ordinary work days when a man should be "early to bed and early to rise, which makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise", according to Benjamin Franklin.

Drink only with a word of thanksgiving a blessing to the Eternal One who creates the vine and the fruit of the vine, and who created life that we enjoy "l'chaim". Don't drink merely to pleasure "cheers" or to nothingness and vanity as is typically done at bars and concerts and secular parties. The sanctification of natural pleasures is something that only Jews can teach, because only Jews know it: temperance with blessing is radically countercultural to the mainstream opinions that encourage indulgence or teetotaling.

Alcoholism is incorrectly believed by idolaters and athiests to be chronic and incurable: because very few gentiles know how to drink like gentleman, and even their gentlemen who practice temperance don't know how to drink with blessing, because they sanctify idolatry or else don't sanctify at all. The antidote to alcholism is not permanent abstinence - it is Torah, temporary abstinence, and a renewed or learned habit of TEMPERANCE.

Vows of abstinence take effect, even when they do not have the ritual requirements of nazirut. This mishna demonstrates why and how such a vow might be made - over a single food item in a single instance, or possibly over a certain category of foods or other products. This can be useful in overcoming any addiction, such as an addiction to sweets and candies generally. In Overeaters Anonymous, in which program participants agree to not eat except at one of three fixed meals, and diets in which the dieter defines the nature of his or her own abstinence. Since the vow permitted by Rav Yehuda's interpretation of Beit Shammai does not become a lifelong vow from which release is impossible, therefore this type of vow need not be discouraged, but may be useful in recovery and in cultivating self-discipline.

In 5774 / 2024 I undertook a Nazirite vow, knowing that it could not be fulfilled, and it helped me abstain from alcohol for about six months, until Yom Kippur when I dissolved it with the words of "kol nidrei" (which on subsequent years I no longer say). But my primary addiction and subsequent abstinence was from alcohol, it was from technological idolatry, power, and money. I had worked as a software engineer in what I now describe as the "Artificial Stupidity Industry", helping some wickedly smart people to get stupidly rich (some people actually talk this way and actually desire this). I helped bring forth addictive and unhealthy products designed to feed the American youth and all other users an endless stream of mainstream video entertainment, to acquire their personal data, profile and analyze their habits, and create an army of artificial "seducers" in the form of personalized recommendations to then exploit them for advertising revenue. I was even named as a co-inventor in some patent, which I've never even read yet, because I knew that wasn't even an original invention: it was basic mathematics, logic, and graph theory applied to audiovisual assets, social networks, and a curated ontology of pop culture entities values which are not worth curating or categorizing in my humble opinion. The entire industry from Facebook to Twitter to Youtube to all the others were all stuck on the same stupid business model, and I hold all of their software patents to be invalid and moreover, unnecessary. My company was better than most because we were propagating the mainstream media rather than user uploaded content, and were therefore not profiting off illegal videos of criminal acts, like the others were. Nevertheless, and I wanted no more part of it. My inbox was full of job offers from eager recruiters representing funded start-ups looking for someone just like me. I could become a millionaire and one of the alpha-geeks who control the internet world, or I could renounce idolatry and devote my intellect to Torah study and to the fulfillment of prophecy instead. So my "Nazirite vow" was really a "Neder" to leave the industry, and was generally assumed by colleagues, family, and "friends" to be a manifestation of paranoid schizophrenia. Specifically I agreed to not have internet at my house, or television, and not to own a so-called "smart phone" - which I have now kept for over 10 years. I also don't watch movies or read novels anymore, and I intend to continue these habits indefinitely, having discovered the infinitely superior pleasure of talmud Torah, navuah, tehillim. I also abandoned my convertible bonds (which are even better than stock options), in a company whose valuation had increased tenfold during my mere two years there, and threatened to increase another tenfold. My imagination has been purified, and the dreams and visions I now enjoy are more real than any movie or TV show. They have texture and depth, and most important, they have purpose as they reveal to me God's purpose for my life, and give me the mussar and etzah tovah that I need to succeed. This story is meant to teach that like the woman's neder of abstinence from dried figs (which a person eats like candy), my neder of abstinence from technological candy was effective, was divinely inspired (and enforced), and changed my life for the better. Mishna Nazir 1:1 describes how intimations of a vow can bring it into effect. If one were to say "naziach", for example - a word I've never heard or read before, but which sounds like a portmanteu of "nazir", "naziq" and "natzliach". "I will abstain" and "I will strengthen" and "I will succeed"

So on this Shavuot of 5785/2025, within the 12 days of Sivan, and two days before our communal reading of parashat Nasso in the book of Numbers where this Torah is giving, a year after I made this source sheet, for another year of abstinence from techno-olatry, I'll say it again:

נזיח "Naziach". נזיר, ונתחזיק, ננצליח.

As regarding Cannabis and other recreational street drugs, they probably should be included in the prohibition on "shecar" or "intoxicants", and are probably therefore prohibited to a Nazir without any additional stipulation, just as AA prohibits its members from substituting Narcotics or Cannabis for Alcohol. Thus the Rastafarian attempt to appropriate Israelite culture into their false messianism fails also on the account of making Ganja / Marijuana into a replacement for wine and alcohol, as a bogus sacrament. It may or may not be worthwhile in "harm reduction", but it renders the pretense of Nazirism to be both self-indulgent and sacramentally bogus.

When white hipsters sometimes appropriate Rastafarian dreadlocks into a mere fashion statement, without even the half-baked attempt at abstinence or spirituality that Rastifarianism teaches, this is in my opinion even worse - it is a doubled cultural appropriation without any attempt at "cultural learning" from either culture. Wild hair is a sign of grief and uncleanness, which hipster dreadlocks attempt to make into a mere counter-cultural fashion statement - into a form of pride and beauty - but without even bothering to seriously counter the consumer capitalist culture of of sensory indulgence represented by alcoholism. It is therefore not counter-cultural, and is merely a basic attempt at self-beautification that renders the person morally ugly to anyone with discernment or perceptual intelligence.

Are those who take the Nazirite vow in these days of exile, is strategically meshuggah, like the intoxicated woman in the example given by the Mishna, who wanted the men to stop pouring her drinks and bothering her?

It may wise in given occasion to make such a vow, in order to escape from seducer or an exploitative society, but one cannot be held to it indefinitely. It is effective for one occasion, and the people who hear should respect the person making such a declaration. Others should desist from plying her with wine, not just for that drink or that night but indefinitely until she voluntarily resumes on her own initiative. One of Israel's prophets condemns the princes for plying people with drinks so as to "gaze on their nakedness" and then threatens that a "cup of staggering" will come around to them when they will drink the wrath of God. Where is this prophecy found, and what should we learn from it, regarding the attempt to abrogate Nazirism during the exile? Consider the words Amos:

Rather than discouraging Nazirism, we should encourage virtue. Just as "social contagion" occurs with drug use, suicide, and other forms of vice, it can occur with virtue. This mishna described how one can encourage his fellow to join him in recovery and self re-dedication to God - by offering to "shave a nazir", meaning to pay his expenses for the offering.

The next mishna describes how a concerned parents, friends, or relatives might "stage an intervention" with a problem drinker: By offering to pay the the costs "shave", or pay half - "shave half", they could encourage him or her agree to admittance into a 30-day treatment program - a Nazirite pledge. Since most drunkards eventually impoverish themselves, the cost could be prohibitive, and we don't want that to be an obstacle.

One who has "hit bottom", and is utterly impoverished might "admit powerlessness over alcohol", by saying merely "I undertake birds", as in Mishna 1.1: he is declaring that he wants to stop drinking, but cannot afford the cost of two lambs, a ram, the meal offerings and libations. Instead he is pledging the gift of an indigent. A drunkard is less likely to be hired to work, and therefore he may lack confidence in his ability to gain employment during early sobriety sufficient to meet a financial obligation. But the kindness of friends could overcome this discouragement, which is why the Oral law wisely includes these laws concernng the vows of friends:

This case of uncertain declarations makes clear a tangential point - one can become a "voluntary nazirite". Does this mean that his vow of abstinence is intact even though he is not obliged to sacrifice?

Leaving hair uncut and uncombed is a traditionally sign of mourning. By going uncombed, the Nazirite distinguishes himself from the one who combs and curls his hair for mere beauty, or for an effeminate style. The Nazir's hair signals mourning for his sins and those of his family, tribe, or nation, and the suffering brings catharsis (taharah, purification) from guilt and sin. The uncleanness of his wild hair repulses women, and therefore makes sexual immorality unlikely. , and for sins that have become socially systemic. The solitude (hitbodedut) created by the social isolation, thus enables the nazir to reattain a measure of kedusha - holiness - sanctification.

When returning to community as signaled by the shaving of his hair, the Nazir will be prepared to choose better company.

A gentile may voluntarily undertake the way of the Nazir, but there is no obligation to sacrifice at the end of his term. If he chooses to sacrifices, it is a a mitnadev, a voluntary free-will offering. As with other ceremonial mitzvot, he may not claim that he is "commanded in such and such", or that he is "sanctified by the command". If he chooses to host a ceremonial meal at the end of his term, it does not carry with it ritual holiness or obligation. Conversely he has not offended G-d if he chooses not to host a ceremonial "graduation party" or meal.

Is a Jew is now in a similar position, insofar as he is in exile and unable to bring the required offering to release himself from the vow? Will the tefillah and tehillim be a substitute of partial adequacy - as they are for the other impossible but obligitory offerings? Or if not, will Yom Kippur atone? Is there a better declaration or prayer than kol nidrei, through which one can be released from the vow? Or must he immigrate to eretz Israel and remain a nazir for life or until the temple is built?

Drinking like a gentlemen or like a lady, involves a few precepts which can be drawn from this passage of Koheleth, and also found in Jewish sources. His God-fearing friends should, in lieu of the priest, role model this drinking behavior for the Nazir Nadav on the occasion his "graduation meal", which will become a life model for him in the future:

1) Drinking at a proper time and occasion for rejoicing, such as a weekend, a holiday, a birthday, wedding, graduation, or other special occasion, and not on ordinary weeknights or mornings.

2) Drinking with a meal, preferably while sitting and not standing.

3) Giving thanks and blessing to the Eternal G-d, universal king, who creates all things by the power of his word, instead of drinking idolatrous libations.

4) Discussing law, prophecy, and wisdom at the meal, and not the idle conversations of scoffers.

5) Drinking only moderate amount, so that it does not compromise his ability to find joy in natural pleasures such as reading, singing, or making love to his wife.