Nazir

Abaye raised an objection [from the following]. [If a man says,] 'I wish to be a nazirite for one hundred days,' and contracts ritual defilement at the very beginning of them, it might be held that this makes void [the naziriteship], but the text reads, 'And the former days shall be void'; there must first be 'former days', and here there are no former days. If he contracts ritual defilement at the end of the hundred days, it might be held that this makes void [the naziriteship], but the text reads, 'And the former days shall be void', implying that there are later days too' and here there are no days to come. If he contracts ritual defilement on the ninety-ninth day. It might be held  that he should not make void the naziriteship, but the text reads, And the former days shall be void, implying that there must be days to come, and here there are both former days  and days to come. Now it cannot be said that we are dealing with a ritually defiled person who makes a nazirite vow, since the account begins. "'I wish to be a nazirite for a hundred days," and he contracts defilement at the very beginning of them,' and yet it says that former days are necessary. — This indeed is a refutation [of 'Ulla]. R. Papa asked Abaye: Regarding the days that are required, is it sufficient if one has passed and [the defilement occurs when] the second begins, or must two pass, and [the defilement occur when] the third has begun? — [Abaye] had no information on the subject, so [Rab Papa] went and asked Raba. He replied: The text reads they shall fall away. Both the word 'days', and the [plural] form, 'they shall fall away' are needed,  for if the Divine Law had used the word 'days' and not the form 'they shall fall away', it might have been held that it is sufficient if one day has passed, and the second begun,  and so the Divine Law wrote 'they shall fall away'. And if it had used the form 'they shall fall away', and not [the plural] 'days', it might have been held that even one day is sufficient, and so the Divine Law uses the word days. MISHNAH. IF A MAN VOWS A NAZIRITESHIP OF LONG DURATION AND COMPLETES IT AND THEN ARRIVES IN THE LAND [OF ISRAEL], BETH SHAMMAI SAY THAT HE IS A NAZIRITE FOR THIRTY DAYS, BUT BETH HILLEL SAY THAT HIS NAZIRITESHIP COMMENCES AGAIN AS AT FIRST. IT IS RELATED THAT QUEEN HELENA,  WHEN HER SON WENT TO WAR,  SAID: 'IF MY SON RETURNS IN PEACE FROM THE WAR, I SHALL BE A NAZIRITE FOR SEVEN YEARS. HER SON RETURNED FROM THE WAR, AND SHE OBSERVED A NAZIRITESHIP FOR SEVEN YEARS. AT THE END OF THE SEVEN YEARS, SHE WENT UP TO THE LAND [OF ISRAEL]  AND BETH HILLEL RULED THAT SHE MUST BE A NAZIRITE FOR A FURTHER SEVEN YEARS. TOWARDS THE END OF THIS SEVEN YEARS, SHE CONTRACTED RITUAL DEFILEMENT, AND SO ALTOGETHER SHE WAS A NAZIRITE FOR TWENTY-ONE YEARS. R. JUDAH SAID: SHE WAS ONLY A NAZIRITE FOR FOURTEEN YEARS. GEMARA. The first clause reads: BETH SHAMMAI SAY [HE] IS A NAZIRITE FOR THIRTY DAYS, BUT BETH HILLEL SAY THAT HIS NAZIRITESHIP COMMENCES AGAIN AS AT FIRST. May we say that the ground on which they differ is that Beth Shammai are of the opinion [Rabbis declared] foreign lands [to be unclean] on account of their soil,