Tamid 26a (כו.) — the Talmud in English

3. And if

one of them experienced a seminal emission

and became impure, he

goes out

and descends,

and goes away

by the passageway [a structure containing a spiral staircase]

that runs beneath the bira [the

Temple]. This is because one who has experienced a seminal emission is prohibited from remaining in the Levite camp [the Temple Mount]. They made this passageway so that he could descend through it and go to the ritual bath, rather than passing through the Temple Mount. He was permitted to remain there because the areas of the passageways beneath the Temple Mount were not sanctified.

And lamps

were

burning on both sides

along the passageway, in order to illuminate his way,

until he reached the place of ritual immersion.

And there was a bonfire there,

so that he could warm himself beside it after immersing.

And there was a lavatory of honor

there, near the place of ritual immersion. It was called “of honor” because it had a door.

And this was its honor:

if

a person found it

closed,

it was certain

that

there was someone inside,

and he would turn back. And if he found it

open—

it was certain that no one was inside,

and he could enter and attend to his needs.

He descended,

the priest who had become impure through a seminal emission,

and immersed

in the place of ritual immersion. And

he ascended, dried himself, and warmed himself opposite the bonfire

in the Chamber of the Hearth.

After he became pure,

he came

and returned to the Chamber of the Hearth,

and sat beside his fellow priests until

the

gates

of the azarah

were opened.

And

when they were opened, he

went out and departed

to his home, because one who has immersed that day remains in that status until evening and is prohibited from performing the Temple service.

4. When the first light of dawn rose, they removed the terumat ha-deshen from atop the altar. This was the first service performed each day. They would draw lots among the priests of the paternal division serving that day to determine which of them would merit performing it.

And

whoever

was among the priests of that paternal division

who wished

to participate in the lottery in order to merit

removing

the ashes—

would rise early and immerse before the supervisor came

to conduct the lottery. For if he won the lot, he would be ready for this service, since no one enters the azarah until he has immersed, even if he is pure.

And at what time did the supervisor come?

The times were not all the same.

Sometimes he came at “

the crowing of the rooster,”

which is the third of the second half of the night. And sometimes he did not come at that time, but

either close to it

before

or

close to it

afterward,

and there was no fixed time for this. But he never came in the middle of the night.

And

the supervisor would come and knock on them,

the gates of the Temple Mount,

and they

the guards

would open for him.

Then he would knock on the gates of the Chamber of the Hearth, and they would open for him.

He said to them,

the supervisor said to the priests:

Whoever has immersed

should come and participate in the lottery,

that is, participate in the drawing of lots!

They conducted the lottery

in the consecrated half of the Chamber of the Hearth. And

whoever won

won the removal of the ashes.

Gemara:

We learned in the Mishna: The priests maintain watch in the Temple at three places.

The Gemara asks:

From where are these matters derived,

that the priests maintain watch at three places?

Abaye said: The verse states: “

And those encamped before the Tabernacle, to the east, before the Tent of Meeting, eastward: Moses and Aaron and his sons, maintaining the charge of the Sanctuary as a charge for the children of Israel

and the non-priest who approaches shall be put to death.” Aaron and his two sons—there are three. From here it is derived that three watches are required.

The Gemara challenges this:

They said: Yes,

that is indeed so:

we find merely the requirement of maintaining watch

in this verse,

which is required.

However,

our question is as follows: The

Mishna teaches: “

The priests maintain watch in the Temple at three places,”

which indicates that the priests maintain watch separately, in addition to the Levites, who maintain watch separately at twenty-one other places, as we learned in tractate Middot.

But

in the

verse

concerning maintaining watch,

priests and Levites are written together,

as it says, “Moses and Aaron and his sons”; and Moses was a Levite.

The Gemara answers:

They said: This is what the verse means. The

verse states: “

And those encamped before the Tabernacle, to the east, before the Tent of Meeting, eastward—

Moses”!

And afterward,

the end of the verse states: “

Aaron and his sons guard

the charge of the Sanctuary

as a charge for the children of Israel.”

Aaron

maintained watch

at one place, and his sons at two additional places. Thus, there were three places guarded by priests alone.

And we explain:

From where

do we know that the verse is divided into two parts, and that its beginning and end do not concern the same matter?

From the fact that it is written

at the beginning of the verse: “

those encamped,”

and it is written

afterward: “

guarding.”

This indicates that the Levites were

encamped

in one place

separately, and

the priests were

guarding

separately

in another place.

The Gemara asks again:

But perhaps all of them [Aaron and his two sons]

were guarding together at one place alone

and, nevertheless, from where do we know that there were three places?

The Gemara answers:

This cannot enter your mind

to say so, because

just as

Moses,

who is mentioned in this verse, is understood to be distinct from them,

as Moses was at one place

alone, by himself and not together with them,

so too Aaron and his sons, each and every one of them

maintained watch

at one place alone,

by himself.

Rav Ashi said: From the end of the verse

we learn that they maintained watch at three places, because three expressions of guarding are written in it: First, “

guarding”; second, “

the charge

of the sacred place”; third, “

as a charge

for the children of Israel.” And if they maintained watch in only one place, then there would be only one act of guarding.