“The nazirite shall shave his consecrated head at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and shall take the hair of his consecrated head, and he shall place it on the fire that is beneath the peace offering” (Numbers 6:18). “The nazirite shall shave his consecrated head at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.” Rabbi Yoshiya says: It is with regard to the peace offering that the verse is speaking.137The nazirite should shave his hair after the peace offering is sacrificed.
Or, it is only “at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting,” in its plain sense. You said: If the Torah said this: “You shall not ascend on stairs to My altar, [so that your nakedness will not be exposed upon it]” (Exodus 20:23), all the more so regarding a disgraceful act – that he should not shave. Why, then, does the verse state: “At the entrance of the Tent of Meeting”? The verse is speaking of the peace offering, in whose regard it is written: “He shall slaughter it at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting” (Leviticus 3:2).
Rabbi Yitzḥak says: It is unnecessary. It says: “And he shall take the hair of his consecrated head, and he shall place it on the fire that is beneath [the peace offering]”; this is regarding something that is lacking taking and placing, and not something that is lacking taking, bringing, and placing. That is, in the place that he would cook, there he would shave. I have only that he shaves in the Temple.
From where is it derived even in the rest of the country? It says: “Shall shave [gilaḥ],” “and…shall shave [vegilaḥ],”138The midrash is using the letter vav at the beginning of the word as a source for the halakha stated. even in the rest of the country. What is the difference between one who shaves at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and one who shaves in the rest of the country? One who shaves at the entrance to the Tent of Meering casts the hair beneath the pot,139This is the pot in which the peace offering is cooked. but one who shaves in the rest of the country does not cast his hair beneath the pot.
“The nazirite shall shave…at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.” Abba Ḥanan said in the name of Rabbi Elazar: If the entrance was not open, he would not shave. He would take the gravy and place it on the hair of his consecrated head and cast it beneath the pot of the peace offering, as it is stated: “And he shall place it on the fire that is beneath the peace offering [zevaḥ hashelamim]” – from his offering [mizivḥo], he shall place beneath it.
“The peace offering” – I have only beneath the peace offering, beneath the sin-offering, from where is it derived? The verse states: Zevaḥ, in any case.140Any type of offering. I have only if he burns it when he shaves in the Temple, in the rest of the country from where is it derived? The verse states: “And he shall place it on the fire,” in any case.