Kommentar zu Taanit 4:5

זמן עצי הכהנים והעם – when the [Jews] from the Diaspora made Aliyah [to the land of Israel] (i.e. after Cyrus the Great In 516 BCE permitted the Jews to return to their land) and the did not find wood in the :compartment [of the Temple for the storage of wood] and they stood and donated from their own [supply and funds] and on the day that they bring wood, they bring with them a sacrifice of donation and make that day a holiday, and such is written in the book of Ezra (Nehemiah 10:35): “We have cast lots [among] the priests, [the Levites, and the people] to bring the wood offering to the House of our God [by clans] annually at set times [in order to provide fuel for the altar of the LORD our God as is written in our Teaching].”

The times of the wood of the priests and the people was nine:
On the first of Nisan the family Arah of Yehudah.
On the twentieth of Tammuz the family of David of Yehudah.
On the fifth of Av the family of Parosh of Yehudah.
On the seventh of the same month, the family of Yonadav of Rechav.
On the tenth of the same month, the family of Snaah of Benjamin.
On the fifteenth of the same month, the family of Zattu of Yehudah, and with them were the priests and Levites and all those who were not certain of their tribe and the family of Gonve Eli and the family of Kotze Ketizot.
On the twentieth of the same month the family of Pahat Moav of Yehudah.
On the twentieth of Elul the family of Adin of Yehudah.
On the first of Tevet the family of Parosh of Yehudah [offered] a second time.
On the first of Tevet there was no maamad for there was Hallel, Musaf and the wood-festival.
This mishnah teaches that there were nine fixed dates during the year upon which certain families would bring wood to the altar. The mishnah seems to relate and expand upon what is stated in Nehemiah 10:35 by those who returned to the land of Israel after the first exile, “We have cast lots [among] the priests, the Levites and the people, to bring the wood-offering to the House of our God by clans annually at set times in order to provide fuel for the altar of the Lord our God, as is written in the Teaching.” The name for these donations, “The wood of the priests and the people” comes from the beginning of this verse. The Talmud teaches that even if there was already enough wood in the Temple, the wood donated by these families took priority, and would be used first.
We might also note that the very idea of celebrating and commemorating the bringing of wood to the Temple attests to how valuable and scarce wood was at those times in the land of Israel. It remains to this day a relatively scarce commodity.
Section one: This family is mentioned in Ezra 2:5 and Nehemiah 7:10.
Section three: Mentioned in Ezra 2:3, Nehemiah 7:5.
Section four: The “Rechavites” seem to have been some sort of separatist sect that existed during the First Temple period and continued to exist as a family in the Second Temple period. Jeremiah 35 is mostly about this sect. For more information you can look up the article on them in the Encyclopedia Judaica.
Section five: Mentioned in Ezra 2:35; Nehemiah 7:38.
Section six: Zattu is mentioned in Ezra 2:8 and Nehemiah 7:13. On this day other priests and Levites brought wood as well as anyone who didn’t know what tribe they were from. There were also two other families who donated wood on that day.
Section seven: Mentioned in Ezra 2:6; Nehemiah 7:11.
Section eight: Ezra 2:15; Nehemiah 7:20.
Section nine: This is the same family that already gave on the fifth of Av.
Section ten: The first of Tevet is both Rosh Hodesh and Hannukah. Because of Hallel (recited because of Hannukah) there was no maamad during Shacharit, as we learned in yesterday’s mishnah. The Mussaf and wood-offerings meant that there would be no other maamad either. This seems to be the only day during the year that could have both a wood-offering, mussaf and a full Hallel. Note that during those days Hallel was not recited on Rosh Hodesh. Today half a Hallel is recited.

וכל מי שטעה שבטו – and they did not know with whom he should go, he should go with the Children of Zatu.

ובני גונבי עלי – The Gemara explains that once the enemies decreed religious persecution on Israel that they should not bring their First Fruits to the Temple and placed guards along the roads for this. But honest men of that generation brought baskets of First Fruits and covered them with packed figs, which are dried figs and carried them on the shoulders pestle, which is a large tree made like a club that would crush the grit (i.e., a dish of pounded grain) with which they would regularly crush the packed figs to make of them cakes of pressed figs , and when they would approach the guard, would say to them: We are going to make two cakes of pressed figs in the mortar before us with this pestle that is on our shoulders, and this is how they would bring First Fruits to Jerusalem. And because of this, they were called, “those who steal pestles,” that is to say, they steal the hearts of the guards, with the pestle that is on their shoulders, and “those who pack figs” by dint of the fact that they cut fig cakes with tools (i.e. a knife or saw), and these honest men stood another time when they (the government) decreed religious persecution against them that they should not bring wood to the pile of wood on the altar in the Temple, and established ladders and would say to the guards – to take two pigeons from this dovecote that is before us on this ladder that is on our shoulders which we are walking with, and as a result of this, they are called, “the ladder carriers that are torn down” (?) for they would bring from them wood for the pile of wood on the altar in the Temple , and all of these bring wood with the children of Zatu.

שבו בני פרעוש שניה – For after they finished this, they would take lots as to who would be in the end, as it says (Nehemiah 10:35), “We have cast lots [among] the priests, [the Levites, and the people] to bring [the wood offering to the House of our God (by clans) annually at set times]…”

שהיה בו הלל – Because on the first of Tevet, Hanukkah always occurs, and on Hanukkah, we recite the complete Hallel, but regarding the Hallel of Rosh Hodesh, where the recitation of Hallel is only a custom, it does supersede the post. And for this reason, Rosh Hodesh Nisan is not considered, which also has Hallel and the Musaf sacrifice and the wood sacrirfice.