טעם כעיקר

Parshat נשא is the longest Parsha in the Torah. It is repetitive in that the gift of the heads of each tribe is repeated.

The main subjects of the Parsha are the סוטה, the unfaithful wife, the Priestly blessing and the נזיר.

The נזיר takes upon himself three prohibitions. He does not cut his hair, he does not come in contact with the dead, and he does not consume anything that comes from grapes.

Regarding the grape consumption, we learn a very basic law of Kashrut. This is known as טעם כעיקר, that the taste of something is like the principle. This is learned from the words, וכל משרת ענבים, referring to anything soaked in grapes.

From here we learn that in a situation where the forbidden object is removed and only a taste remains, it is still forbidden. For example, if a piece of meat, falls into something dairy, and that piece of meat is removed, the dairy dish will be forbidden if the taste of meat remains. This is טעם כעיקר learned from נזיר. Shabbat Shalom