פירוש על תמיד 2:6

ראוהו אחיו – to him that removed the ashes on the altar.

When his fellow priests saw that he had descended, they came running and hastened to wash their hands and feet in the laver. When the other priests see that the person who cleared the ashes had descended from the altar, they knew it was their turn to wash their hands and feet.

שירד – from the a;tar amd [it the coals on the eastern side.

They then took the shovels and the forks and went up to the top of the altar. The limbs and pieces of fat that had not been consumed since the evening they pushed to the sides of the altar. If there was not room on the sides they arranged them on the surround or on the ascent. Their task was to take the pieces of the sacrifices that had not been consumed the day before and to clear them to the sides of the altar to make room for the wood they were now going to burn for the new day’s sacrifices. These limbs and pieces of fat would still burn; they would just do so on the sides of the altar. If there wasn’t enough room on the sides of the altar, they would even take some pieces off of the altar and put them on the ledge surrounding the altar or on the ascent. As we will learn in mishnah five, these pieces were later put back on so that they could be consumed.

והם רצו וכו' וקדשו ידיהם ורגליהם – in order to perform the Divine Service.

סונקים (press them) – remove them, from the language of shaking and moving about. And similarly, like a stuffed goat {Tractate Pesahim 3b], a goat that is tired as a result of the shaking and the goring that they gore one another, even here, they stuff/choke from the movements and they turn them over in the water pipes to the sides of the altar.

בסובב על הכבש (on the circuit by the ramp) – meaning to say on the ramp, that is opposite the circuit (i.e., a sort of gallery around the altar for the Kohen to walk on).

החלו מעלין באפר – afer they had piled up [the ato th sides or to surround the limbs and fat-pieces that had not been consumed, they would pull the ashes with trowels that were in their hands and bring them up to the pile (i.e., the place on the altar where the ashes were piled up, like a kind of large pile of ashes that was in the center of the altar heaped up and made like an apple.

They then began to throw the ashes on to the heap (. This heap was in the middle of the altar, and sometimes there was as much as three hundred kor on it. After having cleared the limbs and pieces of fat, the other priests would take the ashes still on the altar and heap them onto the middle of the altar, onto a place called the “tapuah.” The pile of ashes on the tapuah could get quite high, as the mishnah testifies. However, when the tapuah began to overflow with ash, they would remove all of it and take it out of the city.

פעמים עליו בשלש מאות כור – an exaggeration is taught, for never did they leave three hundred Kor to be upon it.

On festivals they did not use to clear away the ash because it was reckoned an ornament to the altar. On festivals they let the ash heap grow even higher because by seeing the massive amounts of ashes, people could tell how many sacrifices had been offered. The large ash-heap was considered to be ornamental to the altar.

וברגלים לא היו מדשנים אותו – they would not removethe ashes outside, even thogh it was a great deal on the altar.

It never happened that the priest was neglectful in taking out the ashes. This section relates to the previous one. One might have thought that they neglected to clear away the ashes during the festival, perhaps because they were so busy with other matters. To dash this thought, the mishnah notes that the priests never neglected the duty of taking the ashes off of the altar. They left the ashes on the altar during the festival out of intention and not neglect.

מפני שהוא נוי למזבח – so that it would appear that there were man sacrifices on the altar.

מימיו לא נתעצל – meaning to say, that which was so many ashes, not on account of the laziness of the Kohanim, but rather as an ornament and to demonstrate that many sacrifices were offeed on the altar.

מעלין בגזרין (heaping up pieces of wood) – two long and planed wood they would put into the length of the pile of wood in the altar, as it is written (Leviticus 6:5): “every morning the priest shall feed wood to it,” which teaches that it requires two pieces of wood (e.g., the word עצים – in the verse is in the plural).

They then began to take up the logs to place onto the fire. After having cleared the altar of the ashes or at least pushing them into the middle of the altar, the priests can now begin to bring up new wood to use to burn the day’s sacrifices.

וכי כל העצים כשרים למערכה – as it is taught (in this Mishnah): “they began heaping up pieces of wood” plainly/undefined, and it doesn’t explain from what species of tree were these pieces of wood. And it responds, affirmatively, meaning to say, that everything is valid except for olives and [grape] vines, which ae prohibited because of the cultivation of the land of Israel because they are laden with fruit/produce. But there are those who state the reason because they ae made into ashes immediately.

Were all kinds of wood valid for the fire? All kinds of wood were valid for the fire except vine and olive wood. But what they mostly used were boughs of fig trees and of nut trees and of oil trees. Any wood could be used on the altar except for olive wood and vines. These were not used for kindling because these are the primary fruit bearing trees in Israel. It would be completely wasteful to use them as firewood. The most common trees were figs, nuts and oil trees. Note that these trees also bear fruit, but they were used for fire because their fruit was less significant than the wine and oil that come from the vine and olive trees. Alternatively, some commentators claim that these types of trees can only be used if the figs, nuts or oil that they produce are of low quality.

מורביות (boughs) – branches of fig-trees, and especially bad fig-trees, that don’t produce fruit.

עץ שמן – that makes the oil of the balsam tree. But I heard that it is a tree that they call PINO in the foreign language, and TZINUBOR in Arabic. But even though it is an eatable tree, there is no need like that of the vine and the olive, therefore, they did not forbid it because of the of the settlement of the land of Israel, in the manner that they forbade the vine and the olive.

מערכה גדולה – because there is another pile of wood on the altar in the Temple, they called this the large pile of wood. There were three piles of wood on the altar every day, the first was the large pile of wood where they would burn on it the daily [morning] offering/תמיד; and the second was a lesser pile than it which was called the pile of wood of the incense, that they take from it coals with a coal-pan for the incense which they offer in the morning and at twilight, and third is not used a all other than for the establishment of the fire, as it is written (Leviticus 6:5): “The fire on the altar shall be kept burning, [not to go out],” this is the pile for the establishment of the fire.

He then arranged a large pile on the east side of the altar, with its open side on the east, while the inner ends of the [selected] logs touched the ash heap. They now begin to arrange the logs on the altar. They begin with a large pile of logs on the eastern side of the altar. In tomorrow’s mishnah we shall see that there was a smaller pile on the other side for burning the incense. The open side of the large pile faced east. The logs were arranged in straight rows from east to west, with the ends of the logs on the eastern side.

וחזיתה מזרחה – its appearance which is the opening and the window of he pile of wood on the altar, to the eastern side of the altar.

Spaces were left between the logs in which they kindled the brushwood. They left spaces in between the logs into which they put brushwood for kindling. Anyone who has ever made a good campfire should be familiar with this practice.

וראשי גזירין – the insides were long until they would touch the “apple”/place on the altar where the ashes were piled up.

את האליתא (wood of the fig tree, used as kindling wood on the altar) – they insert dried branches/twigs used for fuel and thin chips between the big pieces to kindle the fire. And the word אליתא is the language of tail/fat-tail, named for the tails of the fire-brands.

בררו משם – from between the place of he wood.

They picked out from there some good fig-tree branches to make a second fire for the incense near the south-western corner some four cubits to the north of it, using as much wood as he judged sufficient to form five seahs of coals, and on the Shabbat as much as he thought would make eight seahs of coals, because from there they used to take fire for the two dishes of frankincense for the showbread. This section describes setting up the fire from which coals would be drawn to burn the incense on the inner altar, which stood inside the sanctuary (unlike the main altar which was outside). The wood used to make these coals was set up on the south-western corner of the altar, a little bit removed to the north. They would put enough wood to make five seahs of coals. On Shabbat they needed more coals because they would use them for the two dishes of frankincense burned on Shabbat with the showbread. Evidently, these two dishes needed an extra three seahs of coals.

בעומד חמש סאים (an amount of five Seah of cinders) – in that pile on the altar of incense like five Seah of burning coals, that from them he would take coals out with a pan (see Tractate Yoma, Chapter 4, Mishnah 4) for the needs of the incense.

The limbs and the pieces of fat which had not been consumed over night were put back on the wood. The chapter concludes by returning to those limbs and pieces of fat that were moved to the side in mishnah one of the chapter. These could now be moved back to the middle so that they could keep on burning.

בעומד – like by mere estimate/sight (באומד).

They then kindled the two fires and descended and went to the chamber of hewn stone. After all this hoopla, the fires can finally be lit. After having lit the fires, they would go down to the chamber of hewn stone to raise a toast (just kidding!). In the chamber of hewn stone they will cast lots to see who gets to offer which sacrifice. But stay tuned the action continues in the next chapter.

ובשבת בעומד שמונה סאים – because they need more burning coal for the two dishes/censers of frankincense of the show-bread [on the table of the Sanctuary], that they would offer up as incense from one Shabbat to the next.

מחזירין אותן למערכה – and they would be burned there on the sides of the large pile of wood on the altar.

ובאו להם ללשכת הגזית – to perform the lotteries.