Tamid

. He said to them: Do people here eat gold bread? They replied: If you wanted bread, had you no bread in your own place to eat that you should have journeyed here? When he left the place he wrote on the gate of the city: ‘I, Alexander of Macedon, was a fool until I came to the city of women in Africa and I learnt counsel from the women’. As he was journeying he sat by a well and began to eat. He had with him some salted fish, and as they were being washed they gave off a sweet odour. He said: This shows that this well comes from the Garden of Eden. Some say that he took some of the water and washed his face with it; others say that he went alongside of it until he came to the door of the Garden of Eden. He cried out, Open the door for me. They replied, This is the gate of the Lord, [the righteous shall enter into it].1 He replied: I too am a king; I am also of some account, give me something. They gave him an eyeball. He went and weighed all his silver and gold against it, and it was not equal to it. He said to the Rabbis: How is this? They replied: It is the eyeball of a human being, which is never satisfied. He said to them: How can you prove that this is so? They took a little dust and covered it, and immediately it was weighed down; and so it is written, The nether world and Destruction are never satiated; [so the eyes of man are never satiated].2 The Tanna de-be Eliyahu taught: Gehinnom is above the firmament; some, however, say that is behind the Mountains of Darkness. R. Hiyya taught: If one studies the Torah at night, the Divine presence faces him, as it says, Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches; pour out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord.3 R. Eliezer b. Azariah said: The disciples of the wise increase peace in the world, as it says, And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children.4 Read not banayik, [thy children], but bonayik [thy builders]. MISHNAH. THE SUPERINTENDENT SAID TO THEM, PRONOUNCE ONE BLESSING,5 AND THEY DID SO: THEY THEN RECITED THE TEN COMMANDMENTS,6 AND THE FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD SECTIONS OF THE SHEMA’, AND THEY BLESSED THE PEOPLE WITH THREE BENEDICTIONS,7 NAMELY, TRUE AND FIRM,8 AND ABODAH,9 AND THE PRIESTLY BENEDICTION.10 ON SABBATH THEY ADDED A BENEDICTION TO BE SAID BY THE WATCH WHICH WAS LEAVING.11 MISHNAH . HE SAID TO THEM, THOSE WHO ARE FRESH TO THE INCENSE COME AND DRAW LOTS,12 AND ONE OR OTHER WAS SUCCESSFUL. HE THEN SAID, NEW AND OLD, COME AND DRAW LOTS TO SEE WHO SHALL TAKE UP THE LIMBS FROM THE ASCENT TO THE ALTAR.13 R. ELlezer B. JACOB SAYS, THE ONE WHO LIFTS THE LIMBS ON TO THE ASCENT ALSO TAKES THEM UP TO THE ALTAR.14 MISHNAH . HE THEN HANDED THEM OVER TO THE ATTENDANTS, WHO STRIPPED THEM OF THEIR GARMENTS,15 LEAVING ON THEM ONLY THE BREECHES.16 THERE WERE WINDOWS THERE17 ON WHICH WAS INSCRIBED THE NAME OF THE GARMENT TO WHICH EACH WAS ASSIGNED.18 MISHNAH. THE ONE WHO HAD BEEN SELECTED TO OFFER THE INCENSE TOOK UP THE SPOON, WHICH WAS IN SHAPE LIKE A BIG TIRKAB19 OF GOLD. IT HELD THREE KABS, AND THE [SMALL] DISH20 WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF IT, This and the succeeding prayers were said in the Chamber of Hewn Stone. every time. former, then those who were unsuccessful changed into everyday garments: if the latter, then those who were successful changed into holy garments.