When is a nazirite not a nazirite and a sin not a sin?

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Why in Jewish Law Good Can Be Evil and Evil Good. In this week’s Talmud study: Is just thinking about pork a sin?

This point of law opens an interesting moral question, which the rabbis address at length starting in Nazir 23a. Say a woman takes a nazirite vow and her husband nullifies it without telling her, so that she believes she is still a nazirite even though legally she isn’t. What if that woman then starts drinking wine, so that she is in violation of what she believes to be her obligations. Has she committed a sin? Legally, it would seem she has not, and the mishna says that she is not liable for the 40 lashes that are ordinarily imposed on a sinning nazirite. But since she intended to sin, it seems unfair that she should be rescued by a technicality. Thus Rabbi Yehuda says, “She should incur lashes for rebelliousness,” and in the Gemara, the sages say, “She requires atonement and forgiveness.” Intending to sin is itself sinful, even if you end up not committing the sin you think you did.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.