Tamid, Chapter 3, Mishnah 1. The previous chapter left us at the mizbeach, with the ashes cleared and the wood arranged. Now the kohanim return to the Lishkat HaGazit, where a second round of appointments is made, this time for the central services of the morning. Additional kohanim are drawn in to take responsibility for the rest of the avodah.
The mishnah opens with the supervising kohen addressing the assembled priests: "amar lahem hamemuneh," the appointed officer spoke to them, "bo'u vehafisu," step forward and draw lots. Five distinct avodot were entered into this drawing.
The five tasks
"Mi shochet" - who will slaughter the korban tamid? The tamid was offered twice daily, first thing in the morning as the opening korban of the day, and at the close of the afternoon as the final korban. Technically, shechitah does not require a kohen at all; even a yisrael was fit to perform it. Nevertheless, the practice was to keep this avodah within the family, so to speak, and hand it to the kohanim. One might have assumed that a task so widely permitted would not need a lottery at all. But precisely because this was the opening act of the day's service, the Chachamim and the kohanim were concerned that competition would break out over it. To prevent quarreling, they placed it into the lottery as well.
"Mi zorek" - who will sprinkle the blood on the walls of the outer mizbeach? After the shechitah, the blood was received in a vessel and then thrown onto the designated corners of the mizbeach. This is the second stage of the offering.
"Mi medashen mizbeach hapenimi" - who will clear the inner mizbeach? Inside the Heichal, the golden mizbeach carried the coals and ashes left from the previous day's ketoret, and these had to be removed.
An illuminating point here about the ketoret itself: the general practice was to give the ketoret to a kohen who had never yet offered it. The Chachamim teach that offering the ketoret can bring a person wealth, so the privilege was spread around and given to someone new. Only when every kohen in that particular mishmar had already merited to offer the ketoret once in his lifetime would they resort to a lottery to award it.
"Mi medashen et hamenorah" - who will clean out the menorah? This kohen removed the leftover oil from the cups, took out the old wicks, and cleared away the ashes. That same kohen would later be the one to kindle the menorah.
"Mi ma'aleh evarim lakevesh" - who will bring the pieces of the tamid onto the ramp that led up to the outer mizbeach? No single kohen shouldered this alone. Nine kohanim divided the work among themselves, and the memuneh spelled out precisely which portion each one of them would carry.
The nine loads
- "Harosh veharegel" - the first kohen took the head together with the right hind leg.
- "Ushtei hayadayim" - the second took both forelegs.
- "Ha'oketz veharegel" - the third took the tail section along with the left hind leg.
- "Hechazeh vehagerah" - the fourth took the fat of the breast, and with it the neck.
- "Ushtei defanot" - the fifth took the animal's two sides.
- "Hakerevayim" - the sixth took the inner organs.
- "Vehasolet" - the seventh brought the solet, the fine wheat flour that came with this korban. Blended with oil, it is the korban minchah, and it was consumed on the fire together with the tamid.
- "Vehachavitim" - the eighth brought the chavitim, the loaves of the Kohen Gadol, whose offering coincided with that of the tamid.
- "Vehayayin" - the ninth brought the wine that accompanied the tamid, poured out into the drainage opening located at the southwestern corner of the mizbeach.
"Hefisu, zachah mi shezachah"
The mishnah closes by telling us that once the memuneh had finished laying out the list, the lot was drawn, and whoever merited it, merited it. Take care to grasp the mechanics. These jobs were not each raffled off separately. One kohen alone emerged as the winner, and what he acquired was the zechut of zerikat hadam, sprinkling the blood. True, the mishnah names the shechitah before it, following the sequence of the service; still, sprinkling the blood was considered the more chashuv avodah of the two, and therefore it belonged to the one whose lot came up.
The rest of the assignments then radiated outward from him: the twelve kohanim positioned to his right took the remaining avodot, exactly along the sequence the mishnah gives. Tally them up and you arrive at thirteen tasks in all: catching the blood in the vessel and sprinkling it, slaughtering the animal, clearing the inner mizbeach, servicing the menorah, and the nine kohanim who bore the pieces of the tamid onto the ramp.