Commento su Tamid 6:3

ונותנו – into the spoon.

The one who had won the right to the incense took the dish from the middle of the spoon and gave it to his friend or his relative. The chapter concludes with the burning of the incense. The priest who held the incense takes the incense dish out of the large spoon and gives the spoon to a fellow priest or a related priest who had entered with him.

לאוהבו – that came with him to the hall containing the golden altar for this this purpose. If there scattered from incense that was in the dish/vessel into the pan/censer, because the censer/dish was full and overflowing, and sometimes, it would fall from him into the pan/censer, he would give the incense to his friend/fellow when it had scattered into the palm of the handfuls of the person offering the incense.

If some of it spilled into the spoon, he would put it into his hands. Any incense that had spilled into the large spoon, he would gather up into his hands.

ומלמדין אותו – because he had never offered incense before, as is taught in the Mishnah above (see Tractate Tamid, Chapter 5, Mishnah 2): “Those who are new [to the preparation of] the incense, come and cast lots,” therefore, they had to teach him.

They used to instruct him: Be careful not to begin immediately in front of you or else you may burn yourself. He was warned not to scatter the incense first on the side immediately in front of him, because he would burn himself as he tried to scatter the incense on the other side of the altar. Very interesting to note how concerned the rabbis were with fire safety!

שלא תתחיל לפניך לפניך שלא תכוה – he would pour the incense on the coals on the western side far from him, and when it would scatter to his side, he would heap it up, as we have stated in [Tractate] Yoma [49b] so that its smoke would delay in coming, and this is the honor/glory that he would tarry/delay during the [Divine] Service. And he would heap up and make a pile on the western side, and when he would come to drag the incense that is adjacent/near him, he would pile it up to the western side far from him, and he wouldn’t be burned from the incense that would be bunrf. Bu if he had made the pile in front of him, when he gathered the incense that had scattered outside of him and he brought it near him, it would be that his arm would be singed/burned by the gathering of the incense that is burning in front of him. That is what is taught in the Baraitha in the chapter [five of Tractate Yoma], “They brought out for him” [at the bottom of 52b] that he would gather in front of him which is outside of him.

He then began to scatter the incense and [after finishing] went out. Rather, he would scatter the incense first on the side opposite from him, and then on the close side. When he was done, he would go out.

התחיל מרדד ויוצא (he flattened the heap of coals and went out) – meaning to say, immediately that he flattened the incense on top of the coals, he went out.

The one who burned the incense did not do so until the superintendent said to him: burn the incense. If it was the high priest who burned: he would say to him: Sir, high priest, burn the incense. The priest who would scatter the incense did not begin to do so, until told by the superintendent that he could begin. If he was speaking to the high priest, he would address him with some extra respect.

פרשו העם – all of the Kohanim depart from between the hall with the golden altar and the Altar at the time of the offering of the incense, as it is written (Leviticus 16:17): “When he goes in to make expiation in the Shrine, no one else shall be in the Tent of Meeting [until he comes out],” all atonement is made holy, no person shall be in the Tent of Meeting, therefore, whether at the time of the incense, whether at the time of the giving of the blood of the bullock of the anointed Priest or the bull for an unwitting communal sin and the goats of idolatry, the Kohanim would leave from the area between the Entrance hall and the altar. But at the time of the offering of the incense of Yom Kippur, they would not leave other than from the hall containing the golden altar, because the incense of Yom Kippur was not outside in the hall of the golden altar on the golden altar, but rather in the innermost section in the house of the Holy of Holies, therefore, there is no need that they should leave from between the Entrance hall and the altar, other than from the hall of the golden altar alone.

Everyone left and he burned the incense and bowed down and went out. All of the priests would leave the area between the altar and the Sanctuary while the incense was being offered, because it is forbidden for anyone to be there at this time (see Leviticus 16:17).