But [for tumah transmitted by] branchy canopies, or protrusions, or a field in which a grave had been plowed over, or the land of the nations, or the coffin-cover, or the coffin, or a quarter-log of blood, or a tent, or a quarter-kav of bones, or utensils that touch a corpse, or the days of [a metzora’s] counting, or the days of his confirmed tzaraas —- for these the nazir does not shave, but is sprinkled on the third and seventh days, and he does not forfeit the preceding days, and he begins to count right away, and he has no sacrifice. In truth they said: The days of a zav or a zavah, and the days of confinement of the metzora —- these are counted for him.

R’ Eliezer said in the name of R’ Yehoshua: Any tumah from a corpse for which a nazir shaves, one is liable because of it for entering the Temple; and any tumah from a corpse for which a nazir does not shave, one is not liable for it for entering the Temple. R’ Meir said: This should not be more lenient than [tumah contracted] from a creeping thing! R’ Akiva said: I reasoned before R’ Eliezer: If [for] a bone the size of a barley-grain, which does not contaminate a person by way of a roof, the nazir shaves for touching it or carrying it —- [for] a quarter-log of blood, which contaminates a person [even] by way of a roof, is it not clear that a nazir should shave for touching it or carrying it! He said to me: What is this, Akiva. We cannot reason here by kal vachomer. When I came and related these things to R’ Yehoshua, he said to me: You have spoken well, but so have they said as an Oral Law.

Two nezirim to whom an individual said: “I saw that one of you became tamei, but I don’t know which one of you” —- they [both] shave, and they bring [jointly] a sacrifice for tumah and a sacrifice for taharah, and [one of the nezirim] says: “If I am the one who is tamei, the sacrifice for tumah is mine and the sacrifice for taharah is yours; but if I am the one who is tahor, the sacrifice for taharah is mine and the sacrifice for tumah is yours.” They [then] count thirty days and bring [jointly] a sacrifice for taharah, and he says: “If I was the one who was tamei, the sacrifice for tumah was mine, the sacrifice for taharah was yours, and this is my sacrifice for taharah; but if I was the one who was tahor, the sacrifice for taharah was mine, the sacrifice for tumah was yours, and this is your sacrifice for taharah.”  [If] one of them died, R’ Yehoshua said: He should seek out someone from the street who will vow to be a nazir parallel to him, and say: “If I was tamei you are a nazir at once, but if I was tahor you are a nazir after thirty days.” They [then] count thirty days, and bring [jointly] a sacrifice for tumah and a sacrifice for taharah. And he says: “If I am the one who was tamei, the sacrifice for tumah is mine and the sacrifice for taharah is yours; but if I am the one who was tahor, the sacrifice for taharah is mine and the sacrifice for tumah [is offered] out of doubt.” They [then] count thirty days, and bring [jointly] the sacrifice for taharah, and he says: “If I am the one who was tamei, the sacrifice for tumah was mine, the sacrifice for taharah was yours, and this is my sacrifice for taharah; but if I am the one who was tahor, the sacrifice for taharah was mine, the sacrifice for tumah was [offered] out of doubt, and this is your sacrifice for taharah.”  Ben Zoma said to him: “And who will listen to him to vow to be a nazir parallel to him?” Rather, he brings a bird as a sin-offering and an animal as a burnt-offering, and says: “If I was tamei, the sin-offering is part of my obligation and the burnt-offering is voluntary; but if I was tahor, the burnt-offering is part of my obligation and the sin-offering is out of doubt.” And he [then] counts thirty days, and brings the sacrifice for taharah, and says: “If I was tamei, the first burnt-offering was voluntary and this one is for my obligation; but if I was tahor, the first burnt-offering was for my obligation and this one is voluntary, and this is the rest of my offering.” R’ Yehoshua said: It results that this one brings his offerings piecemeal! But the Sages agreed with Ben Zoma.

A nazir who was in doubt whether he was tamei and in doubt [also] whether he was a confirmed [metzora] —- he may eat sacred foods after sixty days, and drink wine and contaminate himself with the tumah of the dead after one hundred and twenty days, because shaving for the affliction [of tzaraas] overrides shaving for nezirus when [the former] is certain, but when it is doubtful it does not override it.