Tamid

THE PRIEST WAS NEGLECTFUL1 IN TAKING OUT THE ASHES.2 THEY THEN BEGAN TO TAKE UP THE LOGS3 TO LAY THE FIRE. WERE ALL KINDS OF WOOD SUITABLE FOR THE FIRE? ALL KINDS OF WOOD WERE SUITABLE FOR THE FIRE EXCEPT VINE AND OLIVE WOOD. O WHAT THEY MOSTLY USED, HOWEVER, WERE BOUGHS OF FIG TREES AND OF NUT TREES AND OF OIL TREES: HE4 THEN ARRANGED THE GREAT PILE5 ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE ALTAR WITH ITS OPEN Slde6 ON THE EAST,7 WHILE THE INNER ENDS OF THE [SELECTED] LOGS TOUCHED THE CENTRAL HEAP. SPACES WERE LEFT BETWEEN THE LOGS IN WHICH THEY KINDLED THE BRUSHWOOD.8 THEY PICKED OUT FROM THERE SOME SPECIALLY GOOD FIG-TREE BRANCHES AND WITH THESE HE LAID A SECOND FIRE FOR THE INCENSE9 NEAR THE SOUTH-WESTERN CORNER SOME FOUR CUBITS TO THE NORTH OF IT,10 USING AS MUCH WOOD AS HE JUDGED SUFFICIENT TO FORM FIVE SE'AHS OF CINDERS, AND ON SABBATH AS MUCH AS HE THOUGHT WOULD MAKE EIGHT SEAHS OF CINDERS, BECAUSE FROM THERE THEY USED TO TAKE FIRE FOR THE TWO DISHES OF FRANKINCENSE FOR THE SHEW-BREAD. THE LIMBS AND THE PIECES OF FAT WHICH HAD NOT BEEN CONSUMED OVER NIGHT WERE PUT BACK ON THE WOOD WHICH HAD BEEN LAID.11 THEY THEN KINDLED THE TWO FIRES AND DESCENDED AND WENT TO THE CHAMBER OF HEWN STONE.12 GEMARA. Said Raba: This13 is an exaggeration. [Similarly with regard to the statement]. ‘They made the beast for the daily offering drink from a gold cup’.14 Raba said: This is an exaggera tion. R. Ammi said: The Torah used hyperbole, the prophets used hyperbole, the Sages used hyperbole. The Torah used hyperbole, as where it is written, The cities are great and fortified up to heaven.15 Up to heaven, think you? No; but it is an exaggeration. ‘The Sages Used hyperbole’, in the cases we have just mentioned — the heap and the giving the sacrifice beast to drink from a gold cup. ‘The prophets used hyperbole’, as it is written, And the people piped with pipes. . . . so that the earth rent with the sound of them.16 R. Jannai b. Nahmani said in the name of Samuel; In three places the Sages used the language of hyperbole, namely, in connection with the heap, the vine and the veil.17 This excludes the case cited by Raba, where we have learnt, ‘They made the beast for the daily sacrifice drink from a gold cup’, and Raba said, This is an exaggeration. This teaches us that this is true of the other cases, but not of this one, because in the abode of wealth no sign of poverty is allowed.18 [The exaggeration in the case of] the heap is as stated. In the case of the wine it is as has been taught:19 A gold vine used to stand at the door of the inner temple, trailed on poles, and anyone who offered a leaf Lord’, and it was considered meritorious to obtain the coals for the incense from this space. The fifth cubit had to be used because four were taken up by the projections of the altar. wherein the Great Sanhedrin used to sit. Schurer II, p. 264 identifies it with the Chamber ‘close to the Xystus’ on the western border of the Temple Mount, v. J. E. XII, 576.