Tamid, Chapter 3, Mishnah 8. The previous mishnah described the opening of the great gate of the Heichal each morning. Our mishnah now steps back and takes in the whole scene from a distance: it lists the sounds of the Beit Hamikdash that carried so powerfully that they reached all the way to the city of Yericho, and even the fragrance that traveled with them.
Yericho lay about ten parsa'ot from Yerushalayim, roughly twenty three miles in our terms. The point of the mishnah is not that a person in Yericho heard these sounds at full volume across that entire span. Rather, the terrain between Yerushalayim and Yericho was open, with no mountains rising in between to break the sound. Because the way was smooth, something of each of these sounds, a trace, a remnant, still reached ears as far off as Yericho.
The list of sounds
Every clause in the list opens with the same three words, "Miyericho hayu shom'im," the people of Yericho would hear. First on the list: "kol sha'ar hagadol sheniftach," the noise made by the great gate of the Heichal as it swung open each morning, the very gate our previous mishnah described.
Next comes "kol hamagrefa." The magrefa was an instrument in the hands of the Levi'im, and it had the remarkable capacity to sound a hundred separate tones all at one time. Its noise, too, carried as far as Yericho.
The mishnah continues with "kol ha'etz," the noise of the wooden contraption which Ben Katin built as a "muchni lakiyor," a wheel for the kiyor. This was the device by which the kiyor was hoisted back up out of the pit of water. Earlier in the masechet we learned why: the kiyor was sunk into the water at the end of each day, so that the water inside it would not become unfit and need to be emptied out every morning.
"Kol Gevini karuz." Gevini served as the crier of the Beit Hamikdash. Each morning it fell to him to announce aloud to the kohanim that the hour of the avodah had arrived, and his call carried all the way to Yericho.
"Kol hachalil." The chalil, the flute, was another of the strong instruments the Levi'im sounded to accompany the service, and its notes were picked up at that same distance.
"Kol hatziltzal." The clash of the cymbals that went together with the avodah likewise reached them there.
"Kol hashir." The shirah itself, the song the Levi'im sang while the avodah was being carried out, was audible in Yericho.
"Kol hashofar." The shofar, which was sounded on Rosh Hashanah and on the various public fast days, was heard there as well.
A second view is then added: "Veyeish omrim," and some say that even the voice of the Kohen Gadol, "kolo shel Kohen Gadol," reached them, "besha'ah shehu mazkir," in the moment when he pronounced "et Hashem," the Shem HaMeforash, "beYom HaKippurim," on Yom Kippur.
Not only sound, but scent
The list now shifts from hearing to smelling: "hayu merichim," they would smell, the "rei'ach pitum haketoret," the aroma of the incense as it was compounded in the Beit Hamikdash.
The mishnah ends with a firsthand report. "Amar Rebbi Eliezer ben Diglai: izim hayu leVeit Abba behar Michvar, vehayu mit'atshot merei'ach pitum haketoret." Rebbi Eliezer ben Diglai testified that his family's goats grazed on Har Michvar, a location a considerable distance away from Yerushalayim and the Beit Hamikdash, and the aroma of the ketoret would carry to them there and set them sneezing.