Keilim, Chapter 1, Mishnah 9. Our chapter has been ascending a ladder of holiness rung by rung, from Eretz Yisrael to Yerushalayim and onward into the Beit Hamikdash. Now the Mishnah arrives at the final and highest rungs: the open ground that separates the Mizbeach from the Ulam, then the Heichal, and at the summit the Kodesh Hakodashim.
Getting our bearings in the Mikdash
The Mishnah assumes a mental map, so let us draw one. Standing in the Ezrat Kohanim and looking westward, one met the Mizbeach first, and beyond it rose the sanctuary building. On its eastern face, turned toward the Mizbeach, stood a wide entrance hall known as the Ulam. Within, the building held two chambers. The nearer was the Heichal, referred to simply as the Kodesh, and in it were the Menorah, the Shulchan that carried the Lechem Hapanim, and the golden Mizbeach on which the ketoret was offered. Farther in, behind it, lay the Kodesh Hakodashim, the innermost chamber, where the Aron stood.
The ground before the sanctuary: bein ha'ulam velamizbeach
The Mishnah opens with the stretch of pavement at the foot of the sanctuary: "Bein ha'ulam velamizbeach", the ground running from the Mizbeach up to the Ulam, "mekudash mimenah", carries a holiness above that of the Ezrat Kohanim treated in the previous mishnah. It measured twenty two amot from east to west. In nearly every respect its law matched the law of the kohanim's courtyard, and still the Mishnah ranks it higher, spelling out where the difference lies: "she'ein ba'alei mumin", a kohen bearing a blemish, "ufru'ei rosh", and a kohen whose hair has grown long, "nichnasim lesham", are granted no entry to that ground.
A blemished kohen is unfit for any service in the Beit Hamikdash at all. A kohen is likewise obligated to keep his hair short, trimming it within every thirty days, and once it grows past that he is termed a peru'a rosh. Neither of these men may tread on the pavement lying in front of the Ulam. Both of them, however, blemish or long hair notwithstanding, were free to enter the kohanim's courtyard. That very restriction is what lifts the inner strip above the Azarah in holiness.
The Heichal
"Hoheichal mekudash mimenu": the Heichal, also called the Kodesh, ranks above that pavement, and the Mishnah gives the reason: "she'ein nichnas lesham", nobody may go inside, "shelo rechutz yadayim veraglayim", if he has not washed his hands and his feet.
The Torah requires a kohen to sanctify his hands and feet from the water of the Kiyor, which stood outside the sanctuary, before entering and performing the avodah. Our Mishnah teaches a further, rabbinic measure: even a kohen who is not going in to serve at all may not enter the Heichal if he has not washed his hands and feet.
Notice how the two disqualifications are weighted differently. Concerning a blemish or overgrown hair the Chachamim ruled more stringently and pushed the boundary outward, keeping such a kohen off even the pavement outside the building. Why should the washing be treated more leniently? A blemish and untrimmed hair belong to the man's own person, baguf, while hands and feet left unwashed are a lack imposed from without, an external matter. Where the flaw sits in the body itself they barred him already from the ground before the sanctuary; where it is merely external they allowed him to stand there.
The Kodesh Hakodashim
"Kodesh Hakodashim mekudash meihem": the innermost chamber outranks them both, the Heichal as well as the pavement in front of it, "she'ein nichnas lesham", for admittance is granted to no one, "ela Kohen Gadol", apart from the Kohen Gadol, "beYom Hakippurim", and he only on Yom Hakippurim, "bish'at ha'avodah", and even then solely for the sake of the service. On Yom Kippur he went inside four separate times, each entry belonging to a different stage of the avodah. Any other entry, whether by the Kohen Gadol on another day or by anybody else at any time, carries the penalty of mitah bidei Shamayim.
Rabbi Yose: five matters in which the two are equal
"Amar Rabbi Yose", Rabbi Yose now adds his view: "bachamishah devarim bein ha'ulam velamizbeach shaveh laHeichal", in five particulars the strip of ground in front of the Ulam holds a status identical to that of the Heichal.
Four of the five he groups into one clause: "she'ein ba'alei mumin", the blemished kohen, "ufru'ei rosh", the kohen whose hair is untrimmed, "ushtuyei yayin", the kohen who has drunk wine, "veshelo rechutz yadayim veraglayim", and the kohen whose hands and feet were never washed, "nichnasin lesham", not one of them may enter there, exactly as not one of them may enter the Heichal.
Rabbi Yose is thereby taking issue with the Tanna Kamma of our Mishnah. The first view holds that a kohen with unwashed hands and feet, and likewise a kohen who has tasted wine, may still stand on the pavement outside the sanctuary, and is shut out of the Heichal alone. Rabbi Yose places the two locations on equal footing in all four of these cases.
The fifth matter: withdrawing during the ketoret
Now the fifth item: "Uforshin mibein ha'ulam velamizbeach", people must clear out of that area, "bish'at haktarah", at the hour the ketoret is offered up. The Torah bars a person from remaining inside the sanctuary while the ketoret goes up in smoke, and Rabbi Yose extends that withdrawal to the ground in front of the Ulam as well: it too must be emptied, just as the Heichal is emptied. This holds for the ketoret placed on the golden Mizbeach twice each day, and equally for the third burning, the ketoret brought within the Kodesh Hakodashim on Yom Hakippurim.
Although the Mishnah records this fifth law without noting any dissent, the Tanna Kamma in truth holds otherwise here as well. In his view the duty to move off that pavement attaches to the two daily burnings alone, and does not extend to the ketoret of Yom Kippur, which is offered within the Kodesh Hakodashim. Their argument, then, is not about whether one withdraws, but about which burnings of the ketoret oblige a person to vacate that spot.
So our mishnah has carried us from the courtyard of the kohanim to the very place where the Aron rested, marking at each stage exactly who may stand there and in what condition. Each rung upward is defined not by its architecture but by the added care demanded of the person who steps onto it.