Jewish asceticism

The Essenes (; Hebrew: , ; Greek: , , or , ) or Essenians were a mystic Jewish community during the Second Temple period that flourished from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE.

In the Hebrew Bible, a nazirite or a nazarite ( Nāzīr) is an Israelite man or woman who voluntarily took a vow which is described in . This vow required the nazirite to:

Hebrew treatise of the Mishnah and the Tosefta and in both Talmuds