Sotto il pavimento in quell'angolo [sud-occidentale], c'era un posto [sotterraneo] [un tunnel] uno amah per uno amah che aveva una piastrella di marmo con un anello attaccato ad esso, attraverso il quale sarebbero scesi nella merda [dove il sangue si sarebbe raccolto] e lo avrebbe pulito. Sul lato meridionale dell'altare c'era una rampa di trentadue amah [lunga] per sedici amah di larghezza. C'era un piccolo compartimento sul lato occidentale dove avrebbero posto le offerte di peccato per gli uccelli non valide.
Bartenura on Mishnah Middot
באותו הקרן – of the southwestern [corner].
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English Explanation of Mishnah Middot
On the floor beneath at that corner there was a place a cubit square on which was a marble slab with a ring fixed in it, and through this they used to go down to the pit to clean it out. The blood and refuse would flow down to the pit (called in Hebrew the “shit” wonder if that’s coincidental?). There was a trap door that would lead down to the pit and the priests would periodically clean it out of congealed blood so that it wouldn’t get clogged. That might not have been a job that they had to fight to get.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Middot
שבו יורדין לשית – to a cavity that is underneath the altar corresponding to the place of the libations (see Tractate Meilah, Chapter 3, Mishnah 3).
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English Explanation of Mishnah Middot
There was an ascent on the south side of the altar, thirty-two cubits [long] by sixteen broad. The ascent was the ramp that the priests used to go up to the altar. It was long and quite broad.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Middot
וכבש היה לדרומו של מזבח – a kind of slanting bridge and it is made sloping for on it they ascend and descend from the altar. For it was not possible to ascend to it on the steps because it states (Exodus 20:23): “Do not ascend My altar by steps, [that your nakedness may not be exposed upon it].”
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English Explanation of Mishnah Middot
It had a square window in its western side where disqualified sin-offerings of birds were placed. Sin-offerings of birds had to be left somewhere until they would begin to rot. Then they could be burned outside the Temple. To this end the birds were left in a small window/cavity cut out of the ascent.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Middot
שלשים ושתים – its length was given from south to north, and its width from east to west, sixteen cubits.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Middot
ורבובה (a cavity in the ascent to the altar for deposit of ritually disqualified fowls) – it is a kind of hollow window. It was one cubit by one cubit. And it stood on the ramp to its western side.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Middot
רבובה – like hallow/נבוב , in the language of נבוב לחות (Job 11:12): “A hollow man will get understanding, [When a wild ass is born a man].”
