Tamid, Chapter 5, Mishnah 5. Our chapter has been tracing the kohanim through their morning: the Shema and the berachot, and then the lotteries that hand out the various portions of the avodah. We now come to the ketoret service, and first to the act that must precede it, namely fetching glowing embers from the mizbe'ach outside and bringing them within, to the golden mizbe'ach that stood inside the heichal, since the incense had to be laid upon them there.
This particular job was not assigned by lottery at all. The kohen who had won the lottery for the ketoret itself would choose a fellow kohen standing beside him and invite him to share in this zechut, to carry in the coals for the incense he was about to offer.
Scooping the Coals
The mishnah opens: "Mi shezachah bamachtah," the kohen whose lot had fallen to the pan of coals. "Natal machtat hakesef ve'alah lerosh hamizbe'ach": a pan of silver waited beside the outer mizbe'ach; he lifted it, climbed the ramp, and reached the top, where a fire of coals had been laid out expressly for the sake of the ketoret.
"Upinah et hagechalim heilach vehelach vechatah." Using the pan, he cleared the topmost embers away, some to one side and some to the other, and then scooped from what lay beneath, the embers covered over below, which held the fiercest heat. Precisely these were the coals suited to the ketoret.
From Silver to Gold
"Yarad ve'eiran letoch shel zahav." He came back down the ramp, and standing on the pavement of the azarah he emptied out the silver pan, tipping the embers over into a second pan, this one fashioned of gold.
Why should two pans be needed? Gold carried inside the heichal lends greater splendor to the service done there. Yet the Torah did not demand that the scooping itself be done with gold, for gold is the more yielding metal, and the fire would have eaten away at it and melted it. Hashem shows regard for the wealth of the Mikdash, acquired with money from its treasury, and does not wish its vessels destroyed and replaced for no reason. Hence the sturdier silver serves for the scooping, and the golden one bears the embers in.
The Coals That Spilled
"Nitpazer mimenu kekav gechalim." Since the vessel of gold had the smaller capacity, the transfer left it piled up and running over at the rim. That overflow was intentional and proper, exactly as with the measure of ketoret itself: serving Hashem generously, with more than the bare requirement, is the greater honor. Inevitably, though, something like a kav's worth of embers tumbled out onto the ground of the azarah.
"Vehayah mechabdan la'amah." A kohen would sweep the fallen coals into the amah, the channel of water running through the azarah, where they were extinguished, so that the kohanim, who served barefoot, would not burn their feet.
"Uveshabbat hayah kofeh aleihen psachter." On Shabbat, when one may not extinguish the coals in water, the kohen would instead invert a large vessel called a psachter over them, so that no one would be injured.
The Psachter
This same vessel served elsewhere in the avodah. Earlier in the masechet we learned of the great mound of ashes that accumulated in the center of the mizbe'ach; when it grew too large, some of it had to be carried out. The psachter was filled with those ashes and brought down, and because of its weight the job required two kohanim.
"Ufsachter haytah keli gadol machzeket letech." The psachter was an enormous vessel holding a letech, which is fifteen se'ah, in our terms more than fifty gallons.
"Ushtei sharsherot hayu bah." Two chains were fixed to it. "Achat shehu moshech bah veyored": the forward chain gave a kohen his grip as he drew the vessel along on the way down the ascent of the outer mizbe'ach. "Ve'achat shehu ocheiz bah milma'lan bishvil shelo titgalgel": the second was grasped from above by another kohen, who held the load steady so that it would not go rolling and overturn on the way down.
Three Uses
"Ushloshah devarim haytah meshamashet." The mishnah closes by listing the three purposes the psachter served:
- "Kofin otah al gabei gechalim": on Shabbat it was turned upside down over the embers that had scattered from the golden pan, since water could not be used on them, and in this way no kohen's bare foot was burned.
- "Ve'al hasheretz beShabbat": it was set over the carcass of a sheretz discovered in the azarah on Shabbat. On any other day such a thing is taken out of the courtyard immediately, but on Shabbat it is muktzeh and cannot be moved, so capping it until nightfall spared the kohanim any contact with it and any tumah.
- "Umoridin bah et hadeshen me'al gabei hamizbe'ach": it served to bring the ashes down from the heap that stood on top of the mizbe'ach, in the manner described earlier.