Nazir נזיר

A nazirite drinks no wine, does not cut his hair and does not come near a corpse. The tractate begins with the words by which a person becomes a nazirite, and works through the terms, the transgressions and the offerings brought at the end.

Behind it stands an argument that runs through all Jewish thought: some sages see holiness in naziriteship, others a sin, because a person has denied himself what is permitted. The Torah gives ground to both, commanding the nazirite to bring a sin-offering. The tractate's best-known story is of the shepherd from the south who saw his own reflection in a spring.

Order: Nashim. There is Gemara in both the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmud.