Tamid, Chapter 1, Mishnah 1. Masechet Tamid is the record of the daily routine of the Beit Hamikdash: what the kohanim did, hour by hour, from before dawn through the close of the day's avodah. After the second Beit Hamikdash was destroyed, the chachamim of that generation gathered their own living memories of the service they had witnessed and set them down so that later generations would know exactly how it had been done.
The tractate carries the name of the korban tamid, the offering that was brought twice each day, at dawn and again toward evening, as the korban of all Israel together. Nothing preceded it when the service began in the morning, and nothing followed it when the service closed in the afternoon; it framed everything that happened in between. From there the mishnayot go on to lay out what took place in the Beit Hamikdash in the hours before daylight, as the kohanim prepared themselves and prepared the courtyard while darkness still covered the azarah.
Three Places of Watch
Our mishnah begins one step earlier, with the night. Every single night the Beit Hamikdash was guarded by three kohanim and twenty-one leviyim. This was not a security detail worried about thieves. It was an expression of honor: the Mikdash was never to be left unattended, and someone was always keeping watch over it. The pesukim teach that there were three stations for the kohanim, which the mishnah now names, and that twenty-one leviyim stood watch alongside them.
Here is how the mishnah begins: "Bishlosha mekomot hakohanim shomrim beveit hamikdash" - in three places the kohanim kept watch in the Beit Hamikdash. One was "beveit Avtinas", the chamber of Avtinas, which bore the name of the family entrusted with compounding the ketoret. Another was "beveit hanitzotz", the chamber of the spark, a name earned by the view from that spot of sparks leaping off a fire that was never allowed to go out. The third was "uveveit hamoked", the hall of fire, a spacious chamber set along the north of the azarah. A single kohen was posted in each of these three.
The Upper Chambers and the Hall of Fire
"Beveit Avtinas uveveit hanitzotz hayu aliyot" - the first two chambers were upper stories, raised above ground level. "Veharovim shomrim sham", and it was the young kohanim who kept watch there. These were kohanim under the age of twenty, not yet eligible to perform the avodah, but young and vigorous. They had the strength to climb up and remain standing there through the whole night, and standing in a place with no roof over their heads did not trouble them.
"Beit hamoked kipah" - the hall of fire, unlike the other two, was no upper story. It sat on ground level, and what covered it was a dome that functioned as its roof. "Ubayit gadol haya", its dimensions were considerable, and the mishnah's choice of the word bayit, a house, is deliberate: walls on four sides with a roof overhead are exactly what makes a structure a house. "Mukaf rovadim shel even", and stone ledges ran around its interior walls.
"Vezikne beit av yeshenim sham" - the elders of the beit av took their sleep there, on those very ledges of stone. Recall how the kehunah was organized: twenty-four mishmarot, and within each mishmar seven batei avot, one assigned to each day of the week. Whichever beit av was on duty that day, its elders enjoyed the honor of sleeping on the ledges of the hall of fire. "Umaftechot ha'azarah beyadam", and it was to them that the gates of the azarah were entrusted, their keys held in their own hands.
"Ufirchei kehunah ish kisuto ba'aretz" - as for the younger kohanim, every one of them lay down on the floor with the covering he had brought for himself. These were men who had already passed twenty and were therefore qualified for the avodah, and they slept here in the hall until their shift of watch arrived. Why on the floor? Because carrying a bed inside the Beit Hamikdash would have shown a lack of respect for the place.
The Priestly Garments at Night
"Lo hayu yeshenim bevigdei kodesh" - they did not sleep in the sacred garments of the kehunah, which would have been an affront to their holiness. "Ela poshtin umekaplin umanichim otam tachat rasheihen umitkasin biksut atzman": they removed the garments, folded them neatly, placed them at their heads, and covered themselves with their own ordinary clothing for the night.
The mishnah's wording is not to be taken literally. The bigdei kehunah contained sha'atnez, and sha'atnez is forbidden. The kohanim were permitted to wear these garments only during the avodah, because Hashem commanded it. Using the folded garments as a pillow would mean deriving benefit from sha'atnez outside the service, so the meaning is that they laid them down beside their heads rather than beneath them.
When a Kohen Became Tameh at Night
Sleeping within the Mikdash carried an obligation to preserve one's taharah. Should a kohen experience a bodily emission and become a ba'al keri, he could no longer remain: he had to get off the Temple Mount without delay, immerse himself, and only with the coming of night would his taharah be restored. The difficulty was that the gates stood locked through the night, leaving him no ordinary way out. For precisely this situation an arrangement had been prepared, and the mishnah now spells it out.
He would rise from the sleeping area and descend into the tunnel that ran beneath the Beit Hamikdash. The tunnel did not carry the sanctity of the Mikdash above it, so passing through it was not a violation. Lamps burned along both sides so that he could see his way. The passage led him to the section set aside for the kohanim, where there was a mikveh beneath the Beit Hamikdash, and a large fire nearby to warm himself afterward.
There was also a bathroom there, which the mishnah calls a beit hakise shel kavod, a privy of honor. What made it honorable was the arrangement that protected a person's dignity: "metza'o na'ul yodea sheyesh sham adam, patuach yodea she'ein sham adam" - if he found the door locked, he knew someone was inside; if he found it open, he knew it was empty. The simple system ensured that no one would walk in on another and cause him embarrassment.
"Yarad vetaval, alah venistapeg venitchamem keneged hamedurah" - he went down and immersed, came up, dried himself, and warmed himself before the fire. "Ba veyashav lo etzel echav hakohanim ad shehashe'arim niftachim", then he returned and sat with his fellow kohanim until the gates were opened in the morning. "Yotze veholech lo", and then he left and went home, since he could not take part in the rest of that day's avodah.