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Naso
Sinner or SaintIt is forbidden for a nazirite to drink wine. The Sages disagree whether abstinence from eating and drinking in general and from wine in particular is fundamentally positive, or whether it is a matter for which one is deserving of punishment.
Shmuel said: Anyone who fasts is called a sinner. Shmuel holds in accordance with the opinion of the following tanna, as it is taught in a baraita: Rabbi Elazar HaKappar the Great says: What is the meaning when the verse states: “And atone for him for that which he sinned regarding the soul” (Numbers 6:11)? But regarding which soul did this nazirite sin? [Whom did he sin against?] This means that he sinned in causing himself to suffer when he abstained from wine. Aren’t these matters inferred a fortiori? If this nazirite, who caused himself to suffer by abstaining from wine alone is called a sinner, then with regard to one who causes himself to suffer by abstaining from each and every type of food and drink by fasting, all the more so is he considered a sinner. Rabbi Elazar says: One who fasts is called holy, as it is stated concerning the nazirite: “He shall be holy, the hair of his head shall be grown out” (Numbers 6:5). [Here too, it can be inferred