Tamid, Chapter 3, Mishnah 9. We return to the service of the Tamid offering, and we pick up the story at the moment the kohen steps into the heichal to remove the ashes from the inner mizbeach, the golden altar of the incense. Once he finishes, a second kohen enters to tend the menorah. This mishnah describes both tasks in turn.
Clearing the inner mizbeach
"Mi shezachah bedishun mizbeach hapenimi nichnas": the kohen who had won this task in the lottery entered the heichal. "Venatal et hateni vehinicho lefanav": he took along the basket meant to hold the ashes and set it down on the floor before him, right beside the inner mizbeach.
"Vehayah chofen venotein letocho": he gathered the ashes in his cupped hands and transferred them into the basket. "Uva'acharonah kibed et hashe'ar letocho": once what remained was too thin to gather by the fistful, he swept the last of it together with his hands and placed it into the basket as well.
"Vehinicho veyatza": he left the basket standing there, next to the inner mizbeach, and walked out of the heichal. He did not carry it away with him. As we will see several perakim from now, he returns later to retrieve it, because the preparation of the menorah has a second stage still to come, and the basket waits until then.
The two stages of the menorah
The menorah's turn arrived only once the golden altar had been emptied. Seven lamps sat upon it in a single line running from east to west, and their servicing was deliberately split in two. Our tradition records the division this way: the five lamps at the western end were seen to while the Tamid had not yet been slaughtered and its blood not yet sprinkled, whereas the pair at the eastern end waited until the shechitah and the zerikah were already behind them.
"Mi shezachah bedishun hamenorah nichnas": the kohen who had won the lottery for the menorah now entered the heichal, carrying the kuz, the jug we met back in Mishnah 6 as one of the four vessels brought in for this service.
If the two eastern lamps were still burning
"Umatza shetei nerot mizrachiyot dolkot, medashen et hashe'ar": if he found the two easternmost lamps still alight from the night before, he turned his attention to the other five. Even those that were still burning he emptied out: he removed the ashes, the leftover oil and the spent wicks, and set in fresh oil and fresh wicks. "Umaniach et elu dolkot bimkoman": the two eastern lamps he left exactly as they were, burning in their place.
If the two eastern lamps had gone out
If the two eastern lamps had gone out
"Metza'an shekavu, medashnan umadlikan min hadolkot": suppose instead that these two easternmost lamps had gone dark as well over the course of the night. In that case he cleaned them out and rekindled them from whichever lamps were still alight. Notice that this falls short of the treatment the other five received. There was no emptying and refitting here; he cleared away some of the ash and carried a flame over from a burning lamp, doing no more than getting these two going again.
"Ve'achar kach medashen et hashe'ar": only afterward did he turn to the remaining five lamps and clear out their ashes, their leftover oil and their wicks. When he was done, the picture in the heichal was this: the five western lamps stood unlit, cleaned and prepared and waiting for the kindling that would take place at nightfall, while the two eastern lamps were burning.
The stone before the menorah
The stone before the menorah
"Ve'even haytah lifnei hamenorah": a stone platform faced the menorah, "uvah shalosh ma'alot", built with three steps in it, "she'aleha hakohen omed umetiv et hanerot", and from there the kohen took his position while attending to the lamps. Because the menorah rose above the height at which a man can comfortably work, climbing up was the only way to service it properly.
The mishnah closes with "Vehiniach et hakuz": having finished with the wicks and everything else the lamps required, he rested the oil jug "al ma'alah sheniyah", on the second of those steps, "veyatza", and made his way out of the heichal.