Middos, Chapter 3, Mishnah 5. Our chapter has been guiding us around the mizbe'ach and its surroundings, measurement by measurement. Now the Mishnah takes us to the area just north of the mizbe'ach, the working space of the Azarah, and describes two installations found there: the rings set into the floor for holding the animals during shechitah, and the butchering station where the korbanot were prepared for the fire.
The twenty four rings
"Vetaba'ot hayu litzfono shel mizbe'ach": sunk into the pavement on the mizbe'ach's northern flank were rings, twenty four in all, fashioned out of iron. That count carries meaning. Kehunah service in the Beit Hamikdash rotated among twenty four mishmarot, and each watch was given a ring of its own to use when its turn came.
What was the arrangement? "Shishah sedarim shel arba'ah arba'ah": six rows, each holding four rings, and counting them off gives four, eight, twelve, sixteen, twenty, twenty four. "Veyeish omrim, arba'ah shel shishah shishah": a second view flips the pattern, placing six rings in each of four rows, so we count six, twelve, eighteen, twenty four. The sum comes out identical under both views; what is debated is the shape of the grid.
"She'aleihen shochatin et hakodashim": these rings served as the place where the kodashim were slaughtered. Imagine a semicircle of iron, hinged at one end. The kohen would open it, insert the animal's head, then shut it, and the animal was thereby secured for the shechitah on the spot. Because most korbanot were slaughtered on the Azarah's northern side, that is precisely where these rings were installed.
Beit Hamitbachayim, the butchering area
"Beit hamitbachayim hayah litzfono shel mizbe'ach": after the shechitah, the animal still needed to be cut apart and prepared for offering upon the mizbe'ach, and that labor was carried out in the butchering area, which also stood on the mizbe'ach's northern side.
"Ve'alav shemonah amudim nanasin": eight low stone pillars were positioned there, lined up in one row that stretched along the east-west axis. Resting atop each pillar was a squared block of cedar, one to a pillar: "Urevi'in shel erez al gabeihen." Nothing secured these blocks; their own weight kept them where they were placed.
"Ve'unkeliyot shel barzel", hooks of iron, "hayu kevu'in bahem", were embedded into those cedar blocks. "Ushelosha sedarim hayu lechol echad ve'echad", each block was fitted with three tiers of hooks, one above the next, "shebahem tolin", and the animals were suspended from them by the hind legs. Which tier was used depended on the animal's size: a large beast on the top tier, a smaller one on the middle or bottom tier, so that it would hang at the right height for the work.
"Umafshitin al shulchanot shel shayish", the flaying was carried out on marble tables, eight in number, "shebein ha'amudim", set in the spaces separating one pillar from the next.