פירוש על שקלים 5:1

אלו הן הממונים – fifteen kinds of officers and appointment to authority that are considered in our Mishnah were the daily offering in the Temple. However, these men that are considered were not at the same time, but the pious and the worthy in each generation he would appoint. But my teachers explained on account that the first appointees were appointed for this – thus this was their names. Therefore, the ones who came after them were called by their name

These were the officers in the Temple:
Yohanan the son of Pinchas was over the seals.
Ahiyah over the libations.
Mattityah the son of Shmuel over the lots.
Petahiah over the bird-offering. (Petahiah was Mordecai. Why was his name called Petahiah? Because he ‘opened’ matters and expounded them, and he understood the seventy.
The son of Ahijah over the sickness of the bowels.
Nehuniah, the digger of ditches.
Gevini, the crier.
The son of Gever over the locking of the gates.
The son of Bevai over the strips [for lighting the menorah].
The son of Arza over the cymbal.
Hugras the son of Levi over the song.
The house of Garmu over the making of the showbread.
The house of Avtinas over the preparing of the frankincense.
Elazar over the curtains.
And Pinchas over the priestly vestments.
This mishnah lists and names fifteen officers who performed various services in the Temple. There are various interpretations as to the names. Albeck explains that in every generation the officers who filled these functions were called by these names. Another explanation is that this is the list of the names of those who served in the Temple at the time when this mishnah was composed.
1) Yohanan the son of Pinchas was over the seals: This will be explained below in mishnayot 3-5.
2) Ahiyah over the libations: This too will be explained in mishnayot 3-5.
3) Mattityah the son of Shmuel over the lots: Lots were cast between the priests in order to determine who got to offer which sacrifice.
4) Petahiah over the bird-offering. (Petahiah was Mordecai. Why was his name called Petahiah? Because he ‘opened’ matters and expounded them, and he understood the seventy tongues): Petahiah sold bird-offerings to those who needed to bring them. The section in parentheses is a late addition to the mishnah that is missing from most manuscripts. Petahiah comes from the word “petach” which means to open and can refer to the opening of a midrashic sermon.
5) The son of Ahiyah over the sickness of the bowels: Many priests had gastrointestinal ailments. This is probably due to their frequent contact with raw meat and infected water. The son of Ahiyah was responsible for the medicines and other cures for these illnesses.
6) Nehuniah, the digger of ditches: Nehuniah oversaw the digging of wells, cisterns and irrigation channels.
7) Gevini, the announcer: Gevini would cry out each morning, “Rise up priests to your worship (avodah), Levites to your stands and Israelites to your stations (maamadot).”
8) The son of Gever over the locking of the gates: He would close the gates in the evening.
9) The son of Bevai over the strips: these were the wicks used in lighting the menorah.
10) The son of Arza over the cymbal: The cymbal was used to signal to the Levites to begin to sing.
11) Hugras the son of Levi over the song: he conducted the Levites in their daily songs.
12) The house of Garmu over the making of the showbread: this house of priests was responsible for baking the twelve loaves that were on the table throughout the week.
13) The house of Avtinas over the preparing of the frankincense: they crushed the herbs and prepared the mixture.
14) Elazar over the curtains: he sewed the curtains and then maintained them.
15) And Pinchas over the priestly vestments: he made the vestments, put them on the priests and then took them off when their service was completed.

על החותמות ועל הסלתות – it will be explained further in our Mishnah.

על הפייסות – to teach the order of the lottery, who will merit with this service, and whom with that, as is explained in the Tractate Yoma (see Chapter 2, Mishnayot 1-4).

על הקינים – those lacking atonement such as the man and/or a woman with a flux and a woman who just gave birth bring obligatory bird-offerings which are doves and pigeons – they put their monies in the shofar-shaped [chests] that are in the Temple. But those who are appointed over the shofar-shaped [chests] take the money and bring through them the bird-offerings, and someone who was wise, great in knowledge and a specialist had to be appointed, as we state in Tractate Avot (Chapter 3, Mishnah 18).

שהיה פותח דברים וכו' – This is Mordecai Bilshan that came up [to the land of Israel] from the Diaspora, and he is called this because he mixed up many languages.

על חולי מעים – because the Kohanim walk barefoot on the floor and eat a lot of meat and drink water, their intestines were ruined and they always needed a doctor to tell them: this is the good medication for the intestines.

חופר שיחין – he was appointed to dig cisterns, pits and caves, in order that water would be found to drink for those who come up [to Jerusalem] on the Pilgrimage Festivals.

גביני כרוז – that was his name of the man who would announce each morning in the Temple: “Arise, O Priests, to your Divine Service” and they would hear his voice from Jericho.

על נעילת שערים – to lock the gates in the evening and to open them in the morning.

על הפקיע – to whip the Kohanim and Levites that were found to be sleeping during their watches when they would guard the Temple at night, as we say in Tractate [Middot] (see Chapter 1, Mishnah 2, where it states that would use a stick – and not necessarily a strip of leather/strap used as a whip), whomever they would find sleeping they would beat him and burn his clothing. But in the Jerusalem Talmud, they would explain that he stripped the wicks of the Menorah and of the House of Water Drawing as we state in [Tractate Sukkah], the chapter “The flute-playing” (chapter 5) [Talmud Sukkah 51b -see Mishnah 3] – “from the warn-out pants and girdles of the Kohanim, they made wicks [and would kindle them].

צלצל – a musical instrument that has a large sound, from the language תצילנה אזניו/it will be a loud shriek in his ears, “cymbal” in the foreign language.

בית גרמו – the name of a family.

על לחם הפנים – that would be made something like a breached chest and they were artisans in his action and in his baking to detach it from the oven so that it would not break and to make it so that it would not grow moldy.

בית אבטינס – the name of a family that were experts in mixing the incense and they recognized a certain grass whose name was a smoke-raiser (name of a plant) and when they would mix it with the spices of the incense, the smoke of the incense would rise straight up like a stick.

על הפרכות – to make new hangings when they were needed.

המלביש – he was appointed to dress the Kohanim at the time of the Divine Service and to undress them after their service, and to preserve the priestly garments in the compartments that were designed for this.