Tamid, Chapter 2, Mishnah 4. The chapter has been walking us step by step through the early morning service on the mizbeach: the clearing of the ashes, the sweeping of the coals inward into the mound at the center, and now the building of the fire itself. Our mishnah describes the arranging of the great woodpile, the ma'arachah gedolah, upon which the korbanot were consumed.
Before entering the details, it helps to know that three separate fires were kept burning on the mizbeach each and every day, each with its own purpose:
- The large arrangement, which is the subject of this mishnah, served for burning the korbanot.
- A second arrangement, described in the mishnah that follows, supplied the burning coals brought in for the ketoret.
- A third arrangement served no practical need at all; it existed only to satisfy the mitzvah of maintaining a permanent flame upon the mizbeach, in the words of the pasuk, "veha'esh al hamizbeach tukad bo," a blaze must be kept alight there at all times.
Our mishnah now turns to the first of these, the main fire.
Where the woodpile was set
"Seder hama'arachah gedolah mizrachah." The same kohen who had just performed the terumat hadeshen, the removal of ashes with the fire pan, was the one who proceeded to build the large arrangement of wood. Its place was on the upper surface of the mizbeach, positioned toward the eastern side.
The face of the pile toward the east
"Vechazitah mizrachah," and its face was toward the east. The kohen arranging the logs did not close the pile off on all sides. He deliberately left an opening on its eastern face, so that the wind, blowing in from that direction, would enter the woodpile and fan the flames along.
The inner ends of the logs
"Verashei hagezirin hapenimiyim hayu nog'im batapuach." The logs were laid so that their inner ends, meaning their western ends, reached in and touched the tapuach, the mound of coals and ashes gathered at the center of the mizbeach that the previous mishnah described. In other words, each log spanned from the outer eastern edge of the mizbeach's surface inward, until it came up against that central heap.
Space between the logs
"Verevach hayah bein hagezirin," and a gap was left between the logs; they were not laid flush against one another. The mishnah tells us why: "shehayu masitin et ha'alitah misham," because it was from those spaces that they would set the kindling alight. The alitah refers to the thin, small pieces of wood used as kindling, the sticks that would catch quickly and get the great fire going.