There is an obvious connection between this week's parsha and haftorah. The parsha outlines the process of becoming a Nazir, while the haftorah recounts how the angel instructs Manoach's wife to observe these very stringencies during her pregnancy with Shimshon. Both sources explore nezirut—one as a voluntary choice, the other as a Divine directive.
Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch draws a deeper connection beyond the common theme. In both cases, nezirut is a means of drawing closer to Hashem. The methods—abstaining from wine, contact with the dead, and cutting hair—are the same, but the circumstances differ.
Nezirut as presented in the Torah represents a growth opportunity for one already in an elevated spiritual state. It allows an idealist an even higher plane for which to strive. Those in the desert who were engaged only in matters of holiness were furnished an additional portal with which to access Hashem. Even the mere Israelite could strive toward the holiness of the Kohen Gadol through not coming into contact with a dead corpse.
The haftorah, by contrast, describes a time and place of spiritual decline and depravity. Manoach and his wife are told to raise their son - the future leader of Israel - as a nazir. In times of societal debasement one must abstain more than usual so as not to be lured into a life of obsession with matters physical and material. Shimshon was raised a nazir and as such was spiritually segregated from the ills of society. It is only because he grew up as a nazir that he could assume the mantle of leadership.
Nezirut thus serves different functions in different eras—aspiration in one, insulation in another. While we are not called upon to become nezirim, the message endures: to grow spiritually, we must be deliberate about what we embrace and from what we refrain. Every stage of life, every environment, requires its own form of discipline. The challenge is to identify what will help us rise—and to commit to it with courage and consistency.
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