Comentário sobre Tamid 4:1

לא היו כופתין אותו (they did not twist/tie together the four feet of the lamb) – of the daily offering with two front hands to themselves or the two legs to themselves, in order that he should not act like the religious practices of the heathens, for such they would do when they performed slaughtering for idolatry (see Talmud Tamid 31b).

Introduction The mishnah now describes the slaughtering of the morning tamid.

אלא מעקידין אותו – the hand with the foot, like the Binding of Isaac.

They would not tie up the lamb but rather they would string its legs together. The lamb was not tied to something else to keep it from running away. Rather it was strung up, with one forefoot tied to one of the hind feet. Note that the word for “strung its legs together” in Hebrew is “akedah” which is the same word used for the binding of Isaac.

ראשו לדרום – it was slaughtered on the north side of the altar (see Leviticus 1:11) , according to the law of the burnt-offering, and he would turn its head to the south, and its face to the west, so that if it would sprinkle excrement, it would not be adjacent to the altar.

Those who merited [to bring up] the limbs took hold of it. Thus it was strung up: its head was to the south while its face was turned to the west. The slaughterer stood to the east of it, facing the west. The animal was held still by those priests who had won the right to bring the limbs up to the ramp. It was slaughtered on the northern side of the Temple courtyard, with its head toward the south, the location of the altar. Its head was turned west, so that it faced the Sanctuary and the slaughterer stood on the opposite side, also facing the Sanctuary.

של שחר – the daily-offering sacrifice was slaughtered on the northwestern corner, because in the morning, the sun is in the east and shines opposite it to the west, and the Biblical verse states (Numbers 28:3): “as a regular burnt offering every day, two yearling lambs without blemish” corresponding to the day for the day (שנים ליום), meaning to say, corresponding to the sun, for the sun is called daylight.

The morning tamid was killed by the north-western corner of the altar at the second ring. The evening tamid was killed by the north-eastern corner at the second ring. The morning and evening tamid were sacrificed by different corners of the altar. The “rings” referred to here are rings that were set in the floor of the courtyard, on the northern side of the altar.

ושל בין הערבים – that the sun is in the west and shines opposite the east, it was slaughtered on the northeastern corner.

While one slaughtered another received the blood. He then proceeded to the north-eastern corner and cast the blood on the eastern and northern sides; he then proceeded to the southwestern corner and cast the blood on the western and southern sides. The remnant of the blood he poured out at the southern base of the altar. Once the tamid was slaughtered another priest received the blood in a vessel. By casting the blood on two corners of the altar, he could cast it against both sides. In this way, with two shpritzes he could hit all four sides of the altar. He would pour out the remainder of the blood on the southern base of the altar.

בטבעת שניה – far from the altar, because the altar was high and would obscure everything. But Yohanan the High Priest established six orders of rings, in each order, four rings, for twenty-four priestly divisions, and they were established on the floor and made like a bow, and since they would not tie together the daily offering, as it is taught at the beginning of our chapter, they would bring in the neck of the animal in those rings at the time of the ritual slaughtering and would wedge in the head of the ring in the ground.

ונותן מזרחית צפונית – first. After he slaughtered the morning burnt-offering in the northwest corner, he would go to the eastern side and stand on the ground and sprinkle the blood in the utensil below from the SIKRA/red paint and place two gifts which are four, one which is like two on the northeastern corner, and he would go to the southwestern corner and place one which is like two on the southwestern corner.