Tamid 25b — the Talmud in English

The tractate of Tamid deals with the order of offering the daily offering.

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

Mishna:

Guarding the Temple is a positive commandment.

And even though in the place of the Temple there is no fear of an enemy or of robbers, it is a mitzva to guard it. For its guarding is only honor for it. For a palace that has guards over it is not comparable to a palace that has no guards over it !

And this guarding, its mitzva is for the entire night !

And if they abolished this guarding, they transgressed a negative commandment, besides the fact that they abolished a positive commandment.

For it is stated, “And you shall guard the charge of the Sanctuary.” And the expression “guarding” is a warning [as it is stated in Eruvin 96a: wherever it says “beware,” or “lest,” or “do not,” it is only a negative commandment]. You have thus learned that guarding the Temple is a positive commandment, and abolishing its guarding is a transgression of a negative commandment!

And its mitzva of guarding is that the priests guard it from within , and the Levites guard it from without ! [ Maimonides, beginning of chapter 8 of the Laws of the Temple.]

1.

In three places

were

the priests guarding 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 the rays of the sun sparkled in it. [Rosh].

C. In

the House of the Hearth,

so called because there were always large fires in it, 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 [partly] above the airspace of the Temple courtyard . And there the priests guarded. And the reason they guarded there is that for the guarding of the priests a high place is needed, like the guards of a city . As a verse cited below demonstrates: the priests guarded above, and the Levites below, beside the gate.

And the young ones,

children,

guard there!

For only young priests, less than thirteen years old, guarded there . But adults fit for service do not wish to guard, and they are also not allowed to guard, so that they will not be prevented from serving.

Whereas

the House of the Hearth,

which was also guarded, was not an “upper chamber,” but was built upon

a dome

of stones, so that its place would be elevated . [ for guarding must be in a high place, as stated above].

And

the House of the Hearth —

it was a large house

in the north of the courtyard, and around it were four chambers 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, and they were built in the unconsecrated area. And two of the chambers were built in the consecrated area, in the courtyard.

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

And 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 rows of stone!

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

And the elders of the paternal house,

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

and sleep there

on the steps of the wall of the House of the Hearth, in its 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 likewise had rows].

And the keys of the courtyard

were

in their hands!

That is, in their possession. For a marble tablet was in the House of the Hearth, and beneath it all the keys were placed. And those elders were appointed over them.

But

the young priests [

[young men who had already reached the category of service] of that paternal house , did not sleep on the rows within the wall of the House of the Hearth, but would place

each one his pillow on the ground,

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

And the priests did not sleep

in

in sacred garments, but would remove

the priestly garments before sleeping,

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

of ordinary clothes

belonging to themselves.