Tamid 31a (לא.) — the Talmud in English

2. And when he came to flay the lamb,

he would not break its leg

for the purpose of flaying [as butchers do: they break one leg and make a hole in the other leg, then insert the first through the hole in the second. They hang the animal by its crossed legs and flay it]. For if he did so, when he cut the right leg the entire animal would fall to the ground, since that leg was inserted into the other and the two were hanging crossed together.

Rather, they pierced

the lamb

below its hock

[the knee] in both hind legs.

And he hung

the two legs

on it

[in these holes] on the hooks attached to the pillars. From then on, even if he cut the right leg, the animal would still remain suspended by its left leg.

He

began flaying from above, from the side of the legs, and

flayed downward until he reached the chest!

The animal was then entirely flayed, except for the area of the chest and below it toward the head.

And when

he reached the chest

and stopped flaying,

he cut off the head

with its hide,

and gave it to the one who was privileged to receive it

to bring it up the ramp, since the head does not require flaying. Its severing from the body preceded that of all the other limbs because it preceded them in burning on the altar.

Afterward

he cut off

the four

lower legs

[the lower part of the leg] which had already been flayed,

and gave them to the one who was privileged to receive them!

He could also already have cut off the forelegs, since they too had already been flayed.

Afterward,

he completed

[finished]

the flaying

entirely, by flaying the chest, which had not previously been flayed.

Afterward,

he slit open

[opened]

the heart,

and removed its blood!

Afterward,

he cut off the forelegs

[their upper portions, from the knee and above],

and gave them to the one who was privileged to receive them

to bring them up.

He ascended

with the knife

to the right leg and cut it off, and gave it to the one who was privileged to receive it. And

the

two

testicles

he gave him

with it!

The lamb was now suspended only by its left leg. Therefore he did not cut off that leg earlier, while the lamb was still heavy with all its limbs.

Afterward,

he slit it open

the lamb along its entire length,

and the whole of it was exposed before him!

He could now see the inside of the lamb clearly, more than he would have been able to had he slit it open while the leg was still attached to it.

He took the fat

[the fat],

and placed it

on the head, which was already in the hands of the priest privileged to receive it. He

placed it on top of the place where the head had been slaughtered

because the priest carried the head with the place of slaughter uppermost. It is a matter of honor to cover the place of slaughter, which was soiled with blood.

He took the innards

[the small intestines],

and gave them to the one who was privileged to receive them

to bring them up, in order

to wash them

with water to remove the filth in them.

And the stomach,

because it contained much filth,

was washed in

a chamber called

“the Washing House,”

and not in the courtyard, because they did not wish to bring all the excrement into the courtyard.

And

no measure was fixed for its washing. Rather,

they washed it as much as necessary,

until it was thoroughly cleansed of the excrement inside it.

But

the innards,

whose filth was not so abundant,

were washed three times.

The place where they were washed was

the smaller of the marble tables

that

were

in the slaughterhouse.

That is, on the smaller of those tables. They did not wash them in the Washing House together with the stomach, so that they would not become soiled by it, since its filth was abundant.

After he gave the innards to the one who was privileged to receive them,

-

[separated]

he took the knife and separated

the

finger of the liver

[a small portion of the liver, namely, the “appendage of the liver,” which was burned with the fats in all offerings]

from the liver,

because they were not burned together with it. Rather, the lung was burned with the windpipe [the neck], the liver with the right flank, and the finger of the liver with the tail and the kidneys.

And he did not

move

the lung, liver, or finger of the liver

from its place

after separating them from one another. Rather, he left the lung attached to the windpipe [the neck], the liver attached to the flank, and the finger of the liver attached to the tail until the time came for their dismemberment.

Afterward,

he pierced

[separated with the knife]

the chest

from the flanks and ribs, and took it

and gave it to the one who was privileged to receive it!

[The cutting of the chest is called “piercing” because the chest covers the ribs, and when it is removed, something like a hole and window is made in the animal].

He ascended

with the knife

to the flank

of the lamb,

the right one. And he would cut

it

down until

its end, along

the spine. And he would not touch

with the knife

the spine

and cut it together with the right flank. Rather, he cut it close to the spine, leaving it attached to the left flank, because the liver was attached to the right flank. If he included the spine with it, it would make it excessively heavy.

He would cut the flank

until

he

reached between the two

ribs

the

that were soft, those adjacent to the neck, which he left in place and did not take with the flank.

Likewise, at the beginning of cutting the flank, he left in place the two final ribs adjacent to the lamb’s tail and did not take them with it.

He cut off

the right flank

the right flank

and gave it to the one who was privileged to receive it.

And even

the liver

was

attached to it,

and was burned with it.

Afterward,

he came to the windpipe

[the neck], where he had already

left

earlier [when cutting the flank]

two ribs on this side

[on the right].

And two ribs on this side

[on the left] he now cut together with it.

He cut it off

the windpipe

and gave it to the one who was privileged to receive it. And

also

the windpipe, heart, and lung were attached to it,

and were burned with it.

Afterward,

he came to the left flank

to cut it.

And he left in it two soft ribs above

toward the tail, which he did not cut together with it.

And

likewise,

the two soft ribs below

toward the neck were not cut with it, since they had already been taken with the windpipe.

And in this manner he left with its counterpart,

on the right flank, the two lower and upper ribs, as stated above.

Thus he left

eight ribs outside the flanks:

two and two above,

on the right and left,

and two and two below,

on the right and left.

He cut off

the left flank

and gave it to the one who was privileged to receive it. And

also

the spine

was attached

to it. And

also

the spleen was attached to it.

And they were burned with it together.

And

that flank

was

the

larger

of the flanks because the spine was attached to it.

However, the flank

the flank

on the right

was

called “larger,”

because

the liver was attached to it.

Since they hung the liver on it, although it was not part of the flank itself, it was called “larger.”

Afterward,

he came to the tail

[the tail] of the lamb.

He cut it off and gave it to the one who was privileged to receive it.

And they gave it together with

the fat tail, the finger of the liver, and the two kidneys

[and four ribs], and they were burned

with it.

He took

from the pillar the

left leg,

which had remained last of all the limbs of the animal,

and gave it to the one who had won it.

It was found that

all the kohanim who had won the privilege of bringing the limbs of the tamid to the ramp

were standing in a row, with the limbs in their hands.