The ancient Roman city of Palmyra made headlines this summer, for the first time in 1,500 years, for a tragic reason. Motivated by religious zeal against paganism, ISIS destroyed some of the best-preserved structures from the ancient world, including the Temple of Bel—the Mesopotamian god known in the Hebrew Bible as Baal. (Indeed, some of the Hebrew prophets might have applauded the destruction, given their hatred of Baal-worship.) But Palmyra was not only a pagan city; it was also home to a substantial Jewish community, as this week’s Daf Yomi reading testified.
In Nazir 47a, we read about a woman named Miriam of Tarmod—Tarmod, or Tadmor, being the Hebrew name of Palmyra—who was a nazirite. At the end of her term of naziriteship, an incident occurred that raised a legal question about exactly how a nazirite stops being one. According to the Book of Numbers, at the conclusion of his or her term—which is usually 30 days—a nazirite must bring three offerings to be sacrificed. These are a male sheep less than one year old, for a burnt offering; a female sheep less than one year old, for a sin offering; and a ram (a male sheep older than a year) for a peace offering. The animal sacrifices are accompanied by bread, flour cakes, and unleavened wafers. In Miriam’s case, she had completed her first offering, when she was interrupted with news “that her daughter was mortally ill.” Naturally, she broke off the sacrifice to go to her daughter’s side, where she found her already dead.
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