NUM34 In both Scripture and Talmud we have an entire complex of laws dealing with the subject of "vows": whether and how a Jew may take on himself certain restrictions or extensions in addition to those which the Torah imposes, and which "oaths" give his intention the force of Torah law. In general, tradition did not look with favor on oaths and vows. Nor did it approve of people who abstained from things that the Torah permitted. In the words of the Talmud, "Whoever takes a vow, even if he fulfills it he has called a sinner" (T.B. Nedarim 77b); again, "If someone takes a vow, it is as if he built an authorized alter; and if he fulfills it, it is as though he had offered a sacrifice upon it" (T.B. Yebamoth 109b, Nedarim 22a, Gittin 46b). This attitude is confirmed by a law that applies to the nazir, a person who took an oath to abstain from drinking wine, cutting his hair and becoming ritually unclean: when he completed his period of abstinence, which usually lasted thirty days, the Torah required him to bring a hattath, a sin-offering. But whatever was his sin, that he should have to offer this sacrifice? For one, the nazir sins by denying himself some of the pleasures which are God's gift and blessing to humanity. Secondly, the nazir is, in effect, adding something to the Torah, as it were. Apparently he considers the manifold prohibitions of the Torah insufficient, and he comes to "improve" on them by adding new ones. This is possibly an act of devotion and worship, but it is misplaced religiosity.… As a rule, then, the nazir is not regarded with favor in Judaism. Nevertheless, there were those who chose to take the vow in the face of the disapproval, and for many being a nazir for a while was helpful. The vow of abstinence could strengthen and reinforce a person's resolve and efforts to control his passions and tumultuous impulses. In this sense Rabbi Akiba says, "Vows are a fence to self-restraint." ... [However] if a person becomes a nazir out of sheer braggadocio, to show that he is more pious than the next man, or if he acts impulsively, in a fit of irrational masochism or self-modification, he acts sinfully.