According to the opinion of the sages of the Midrash, the legislation dealing with the Nazirite follows hard on the heels of that dealing with the Sotah, the woman suspected of marital infidelity, as what may have inspired the Nazirite to impose the vows upon himself he is described here as doing is that he had seen the disgrace which the Sotah had brought upon herself by giving in to her temptations. The Nazir, ideally speaking, uses his vows to reinforce his determination not to fall victim to excess consumption of alcohol, etc. We learn from Hoseah 4,11 that זנות, יין, ותירוש יקח לב, “lechery, wine, and even new wine destroy the mind.” Allowing the hair on one’s head to keep growing without restraint is a conduct diametrically opposed to the people, mostly young men, who style their hair excessively, something that Joseph was considered guilty of as the commentators say on the beginning of parshat vayeshev. Our sages have always objected to people who are overly concerned with their exterior. Extreme growth of one’s hair leads a person to worry that he may not contract ritual impurity; such a concern in turn leads one to strive for holiness. In practice, the Nazir voluntarily imposes upon himself a mode of conduct that every priest is duty bound to observe from his earliest youth. This brings us to the question of why the Torah demands that at the end of his term of such abstention the Nazir has to bring a sin-offering, חטאת; surely we would have expected the very opposite, that the Torah would compliment him on his vow! Nachmanides draws attention to the fact that the Torah does not offer an explanation for this. According to the plain meaning the reason appears to be clear. The person who had assumed the vow of being a Nazir would indeed have been lauded if he had not placed a time limit on his spiritual elevation. The fact that he is content to voluntarily lower his spiritual niveau is something that must be criticized. The sin offering is the vehicle by means of which the Torah calls such a Nazir to order. We know from Amos 2,11 ואקח מבניכם לנביאים ומבחוריכם לנזירים, “I will choose from amongst your sons some as prophets, and from amongst your young men some as Nazirites,” that the prophet equates the prophets with the Nazirites. Just as the former is appointed for lifetime, so it is expected that the Nazirite will maintain his status indefinitely. Seeing that the Torah wrote of the Nazir: כל ימי נזרו קדוש הוא לה', that he will remain holy only as long as he is a Nazir, it is clear that he requires atonement for voluntarily abandoning his lofty status.

כי יפליא, If someone clearly utters, etc.” He either separates himself from the community or he does something mysteriously different, seeing that most people follow the inclinations of their greedy hearts.

נדר נזזיר, “a vow of abstinence.” Generally this is a vow to abstain from wine, alcoholic drink. Some commentators relate the words נזר to ”crown,” i.e. the Nazirite adorned himself with a spiritual crown. He placed G’d’s “crown” on his head, so to speak.

זאת תורת הנזיר, “this is the law with respect to the Nazirite.” Concerning the offering the Nazir has to bring at the end of the term of his vow of abstinence, Nachmanides writes that the unusual words קרבנו אשר ידור לה', ”his offering that he is to vow to Hashem,“ may mean that he must not have any additional thoughts in mind when bringing the prescribed offering, and the word זאת in the above verse may draw our attention to the fact that the relative value of the offering is not determined by his financial ability, as it is in the case of many sinners where the Torah settles for even a meal-offering when the party obliged to bring the offering is in financial difficulties, but is a fixed standard, involving three mammals and a meal-offering. He may even be expected but not be obligated to add another animal or two corresponding to his ability. It is also possible to explain our verse as saying that if at that time the Nazirite simply says: “this is my offering for my vow,” this is sufficient, seeing that as soon as he had made the vow to become a Nazirite he had been aware that at the end of the term he would have to bring the offerings in question.

מלבד אשר תשיג ידו, “apart from what he personally is able to afford.” This is an encouragement to the wealthy Nazirite not to be content merely with the offerings specified in the Torah.

על תורת נזרו, “in addition to the law governing his abstinence.” Here the Torah spells out once more that whereas it is commendable for the Nazirite at the end of his vow to voluntarily add more offerings, it is forbidden to present less than the offerings stipulated in our text. It may also mean that if this Nazirite had vowed at the beginning of his period of abstinence that he would offer X number of sacrifices at the conclusion of his term, then all these sacrifices fall due on the day his period of abstinence comes to an end. He would therefore not be allowed to drink wine until he had offered all these sacrifices. The above coincides largely with Rashi’s interpretation.

כה תברכו, “Thus shall you bless, etc.” The fact that the Torah wrote the details of the priests’ blessing to the Jewish people immediately after the passage dealing with the Nazirite is to be understood as an oblique reminder that the priests are not to bless the people while they are intoxicated, i.e. after having drunk even a single glass of wine. The paragraph following this short passage deals with the erection of the Tabernacle, seeing that was the first occasion when the priests were commanded to publicly bless the people. They were commanded as of now to always perform this duty, and when the blessing was pronounced on the holy grounds of the Tabernacle/Temple they would invoke the Ineffable Holy Name of Hashem while doing so. When the priests bless the people outside the Temple they may not use that name. When performing the blessing in the Temple, they would recite it as a single blessing, i.e. as if it was all a single verse, whereas when doing so outside the Temple the blessing would be divided into three verses although the total number of words would be the same and identical. The blessing when pronounced inside the Sanctuary is directed exclusively at the Holy Name of Hashem. [there is no one around to answer “Amen” in the Sanctuary. Ed.]

אמור להם, “saying to them.” The reason why the word אמור is uncharacteristically spelled with the letter ו is that the priests actually bestow six blessings in these verses, i.e. יברכך, ישמרך, יאר ה פניו, יחונך, ישא ה' פניו, ישם לך שלום.