Nazir 13: Boys Versus Children, Miscarriage, Love Becoming a Vow, Overlapping Terms of Nazirut

Discussing the Mishna shared at the end of daf 12(b), the Gemara wonders why it was necessary to state that having a boy was different from having a child.  Doesn't any child - whether a boy, a girl, an androginos, or a tumtum raise one's place in the world?  The rabbis speak about this briefly.  It is clear that a boy is the 'ideal' child in Talmudic times, but all children were valued.  There is one note that teaches us that some rabbis might not value girls - and thus even more so babies whose legal status was unclear. 

The Gemara turns to the question of a wife who miscarries after her husband vowed to become a nazir if he has a child.  What if the husband separated an offering, readying himself for nazirut, and then his wife miscarried?  Is the offering now consecrated, forcing the husband to become a nazirite? But if there is uncertainty regarding nazirut, the rabbis are lenient.   That means that he should not have to keep his vow - but what of the potentially consecrated animals?

And what if a friend heard this husband's vow and said, "and I"?  Once any person says, "I am a nazirite" and then adds a conditional or a clarifying statement, that person is a nazirite.  Perhaps the friend intended to become a nazirite when s/he her/himself had a child.  Or perhaps the friend intended to demonstrate that s/he will love that baby just as much as the baby's father loves the baby.  Should that person be held to his/her vow?

We end with a new Mishna followed by limited commentary.  The Mishna wonders what should be done if a person vows to observe two terms of nazirut and those terms overlap.  For example, he vows to begin a term of nazirut in twenty days and he also vows to be a nazirite now for one hundred days.  The Gemara wonders: do we interrupt one term to serve the other term?  When should that person be permitted to cut his hair?  A fuller discussion will follow in tomorrow's daf.