Tamid 25b (כה:) — the Talmud in English

Tractate Tamid addresses the order of offering the daily offering.

As an introduction to the service of the priests in offering the daily offering, it first explains the order of the priests’ guarding of the Temple at night, and it likewise explains where the priests slept at night.

Mishna:

Guarding the Temple is a positive mitzva.

And although there is no fear of an enemy or of robbers in the Temple site , it is a mitzva to guard it. For its guarding is solely an honor to it. A palace that has guards is not comparable to a palace that has no guards !

And this guarding is required throughout the entire night !

And if they abolished this guarding, they violated a prohibition, in addition to having annulled a positive mitzva.

As it is stated: “And you shall safeguard the charge of the Sanctuary.” The expression “safeguarding” constitutes a warning [as stated in Eruvin 96a: Wherever it says “take heed,” “lest,” or “do not,” it is nothing other than a prohibition]. You learn from this that guarding the Temple is a positive mitzva, and abolishing its guarding is a violation of a prohibition!

And the mitzva of guarding it is that the priests guard it from within , and the Levites guard it from outside ! [Rambam, beginning of chapter 8 of the laws of the Temple].

1.

In three places

were

the priests stationed to guard in the Temple.

A. In

the House of Avtinas,

where the chamber of those who prepared the incense was located.

B. In

the House of the Spark,

so called because it was built like a portico open on one side, and rays of sunlight sparkled within it. [Rosh]].

C. In

the House of the Hearth,

so called because there were always large bonfires there, so that the priests who walked barefoot could warm themselves by them .

In the House of Avtinas and in the House of the Spark there were “

upper chambers,”

which were built [partially] above the airspace of the Azara . The priests guarded there. The reason they guarded there was that the priests’ guarding required an elevated place, like the guards of a city . As a verse cited below indicates, the priests guarded above, while the Levites guarded below, near the gate.

And the young ones,

children,

guarded there!

Only young priests below the age of thirteen guarded there . But adults eligible for the service did not wish to guard, and they were not permitted to guard, so that they would not neglect their service.

Whereas

the House of the Hearth,

which was also guarded, did not have an “upper chamber”; rather, it was built upon a

vault

of stones, so that its site would be elevated . For guarding must take place in an elevated place, as stated].

6.

The House of the Hearth—

was a large structure

in the north of the Azara, with four chambers around it that opened into it. Two of the chambers were built adjacent to the Temple, within the Temple Mount, in a place that was not sanctified with the sanctity of the Temple; they were built in the unconsecrated area. Two of the chambers were built in the consecrated area, in the Azara.

And some say that the site of the House of the Hearth itself was divided, half of it being built in the consecrated area and half in the unconsecrated area.

The priests guarded in the chambers built in the consecrated area , and the Levites in the chambers in the unconsecrated area.

B. And the House of the Hearth

was surrounded by tiers of stone!

For the hewn stones of the bottom row of the wall of the House of the Hearth, on its inner side, projected inward from the wall like benches. The row of stones above it was narrower than it, and so on. [See illustration.] They were like steps, one above the other.

And the elders of the paternal house,

whose time of service was the following day, would ascend these tiers,

and sleep there

on the steps of the wall of the House of the Hearth, in the half that was built in the unconsecrated area. [And some say that they slept in the two chambers of the House of the Hearth that were built in the unconsecrated area, which also had tiers].

And the keys of the Azara

were

in their possession!

That is, under their authority. There was a marble tablet in the House of the Hearth, and all the keys were placed beneath it. Those elders were appointed over them.

But

the young priests

young men of that paternal house who had already reached eligibility for the service] , did not sleep on the tiers within the wall of the House of the Hearth. Rather, they would place

each man’s pillow on the ground,

and lie on the floor of the House of the Hearth in the area that was built in the unconsecrated section, or in the two chambers that were built in the unconsecrated section.

And the priests did not sleep

the priests

in sacred garments; rather, they would remove

the priestly garments before sleeping,

fold them and place them beneath their heads, and cover themselves with a garment

of ordinary clothing

belonging to them.