Arachin, Chapter 2, Mishnah 5. Until now our chapter has been built on a double formula: a list of things that have a fixed floor and a fixed ceiling, no fewer than this and no more than that. Here the pattern shifts. The items in our mishnah have a minimum, but from the minimum upward the door is left open. The refrain becomes umosifin ad le'olam, one may keep adding without limit.
The opening case is the korban tamid, the offering brought each day in the Mikdash: a lamb at daybreak and a second lamb in the afternoon. Since no offering may carry a blemish, these animals were checked over a full four days before the moment they were brought up on the mizbe'ach, the same period of advance examination that applies to the korban Pesach. Lambs that passed were kept in a room reserved for them inside the Mikdash, waiting there until their day arrived. How many vetted lambs had to be standing ready in that room at any moment? That is what our mishnah comes to tell us.
The chamber of the lambs
The chamber of the lambs
"Ein pochatim mishisha tela'im hamevukarim belishkat hatela'im." The chamber of the lambs may never hold fewer than six animals that have already passed inspection. Six, then, is the guaranteed floor. But follow the daily cycle and the actual count comes out higher. Two of the lambs are taken for that day's tamid, leaving six in place, and two more that have just been examined are brought in to restore the supply. The practical result is eight approved animals sitting in the chamber around the clock. From the day the Mikdash was consecrated the tally started at eight, and the rhythm never changed afterward: two go out, two newly checked ones come in, and they wait there until their turn arrives.
"Umosifin ad le'olam." Six is only the minimum. Nothing stops the Beit Hamikdash from keeping more inspected lambs on hand, whatever number is wanted, a hundred if they wish.
Trumpets, harps and cymbal
The mishnah now turns to the instruments of the Beit Hamikdash. "Ein pochatim mishtei chatzotzrot." As we saw in Mishnah 3, when the trumpets sounded in the Beit Hamikdash there were never fewer than two blown together. "Umosifin ad le'olam." Beyond that pair, any number of trumpets could join in.
"Kedei leShabbat" (enough for Shabbat) "ulishnei yamim tovim shel Rosh Hashanah" (and for the two festival days of Rosh Hashanah). The mishnah is not legislating about that particular stretch of the calendar; this is a simana be'alma, a peg for the memory. What it illustrates is how the four days of examination can stretch out in practice. Suppose a lamb is inspected on Friday. Shabbat comes, then Rosh Hashanah falls on Sunday and Monday, and on Tuesday, four days after the inspection, that lamb is brought as the tamid. Such a lamb is entirely fit.
"Ein pochatim mitisha kinorot." For the harps, the minimum is nine. "Umosifin ad le'olam." Here too, one may keep adding to the number as desired.
"Vehatziltzal levad." The cymbal stands alone: only a single set was used. This is derived from the pasuk describing Asaf the Levi, who played the cymbals, indicating that one set was all the Beit Hamikdash ever employed.