Tamid, Chapter 4, Mishnah 2. Our mishnah, along with the one that comes after it, walks us step by step through the butchering of the lamb of the tamid and the transfer of each piece into the hands of the kohanim who would bring it up to the mizbe'ach. We saw back in the opening mishnah of the third perek that six kohanim acquired through the lottery the privilege of carrying the parts of the tamid up to the ramp, one taking the head, another the lower legs, and so forth through the whole list. What this mishnah adds is the practical picture: how, in the course of the work itself, every portion arrived at the kohen to whom it belonged.
"Lo haya shover bo et haregel." Before the hide had been taken off completely, the kohen doing the work would not detach the animal's hind leg. Compare this to any ordinary slaughterhouse, where once the shechitah has been done as it should be, the butcher is free to sever a hind leg while the skin is still on it and to work with the piece just as it comes. The avodah in the Beit Hamikdash followed the opposite sequence: the entire hide came off first, and only then were the limbs taken apart one from another. Hence the hind leg stayed in place at this point in the process.
What was done in its place? "Ela nokvo mitoch arkuvo vetolevo." A hole was made through the joint of the hind leg, from one side to the other, and by that hole the animal was suspended on the hooks that the third perek described for us, the hooks fixed into the short pillars standing in the area where the shechitah was performed. There the lamb hung, its head pointing toward the ground.
The flaying begins
"Haya mafshit veyored ad shehu magia lechazeh." As the lamb hung there, the kohen peeled the hide away from the flesh, progressing downward from the tail end until he arrived at the skin covering the chest.
"Higia lachazeh, chatach et harosh." Upon reaching the chest he paused the flaying and severed the head. "Untano lemi shezacha vo." He handed the head to the kohen who had won the right to carry it.
"Chatach et hakera'ayim." Next he cut off all four lower legs at the knee joint, "untanan lemi shezacha vahen," and gave them to the kohen whose lottery portion they were.
"Merak et hahefshet." He then completed the flaying, continuing from the chest up to the neck, so that the hide was now entirely removed.
The heart and its blood
"Kara et halev vehotzi et damo." He split the heart open and emptied out the blood that was inside it. What made this necessary? That blood had no place on the mizbe'ach. When the animal was slaughtered, the blood that streamed from the neck was received into a keli, a vessel, exactly as the avodah demands. Yet a portion of the blood never left the body at all; it stayed behind within the heart. Blood that was never gathered into a vessel does not carry the status of blood suitable for the mizbe'ach, and for that reason it had to be drained away.
Limb by limb
"Chatach et hayadayim untanan lemi shezacha vahen." He cut off the two forelegs and passed them to the kohen who had won them.
"Ala laregel hayemanit, chatacha untana lemi shezacha va." He moved on to the right hind leg, severed it, and handed it as well to the kohen whose portion it was. "Ushte veitzim ima." The two testicles were still attached to that hind leg and went up together with it.
"Kera'o venimtza kulo galui lefanav." He then split the animal open, cutting through the flesh over the ribs and the belly, so that the entire interior of the lamb lay exposed in front of him.
"Natal et hapeder untano al beit shechitat harosh milema'alah." Taking the sheet of fat that lies over the stomach and the intestines, he detached it and spread it across the head, covering from above the very spot where the knife had passed. On the neck of that head was the open wound of the shechitah, stained with blood, and covering it with the fat as the head was brought up to the mizbe'ach was judged the more dignified and respectful way to carry it.
The innards and the rinsing
"Natal et hakeravayim untanam lemi shezacha vahen." He took the innards and gave them to the kohen who had won them. First, however, they had to be rinsed out. The intestines are the passageway of the animal's food, and whatever the lamb had eaten before it was slaughtered would still be inside them. Such matter was not to be brought before Hashem on the mizbe'ach, and so the innards were cleaned before being offered.
"Vehakeres medichin otah bebeit hamedichin." As for the stomach, the rinsing of it took place in the beit hamedichin, a chamber situated on the southern side of the Azarah in the Beit Hamikdash. "Kol tzorcho." There it was washed for as long as was needed, until nothing unclean remained in it.
"Vehakeravayim medichin otan shalosh pe'amim bemi'utan." The intestines themselves are narrow, and getting them clean is a much more demanding job, so a minimum of three separate rinsings was required for them. Where was this done? "Al shulchanot shel shayish shebein ha'amudim": upon the tables of marble positioned among the short pillars in the place of the shechitah.