One who wishes to separate some ash from the Altar, arises early and immerses before the appointed [Kohen] arrives. Now, at what time did the appointed [Kohen] arrive? Not all the [arrival] times were the same; at times he would arrive at the rooster’s cry, or close to it, [either] before it or after it. The appointed one would arrive and knock upon [the Temple gates], and they would open for him. He said to them: “Whoever has immersed should come and participate in the lottery.” They held a lottery; whoever won, won.

He took the key and opened the minor door, and entered from the Hall of the Fire into the Courtyard. [The Kohanim] entered behind him with two torches of fire in their hands, and they would split into two groups: These walked in the colonnade toward the east, and these walked in the colonnade toward the west. They would check as they walked until they reached the place of preparation of the chavitin. [The two groups] met one another; they would say: “It is well; all is well.” They appointed “makers of chavitin” to make the chavitin.

The one chosen to remove ash from the Altar would [go to] remove the ash, and they would say to him: “Be careful not to touch the utensil until you sanctify your hands and feet from the Laver; and behold, the shovel is placed in the corner, between the ramp and the Altar, west of the ramp.”  No person entered with him, and [there was] no lamp in his hand. Rather, he walked by the light of the pyre. [The Kohanim] neither saw him nor heard the sound of his [footsteps], until they heard the sound of the wood that Ben Katin fashioned into a wheel for the Laver, and they would say: “The time has come!”  He sanctified his hands and feet from the Laver; he took the silver shovel and ascended to the top of the Altar, and he cleared the coals to this side and to that side, and then scooped from the innermost consumed [coals], and he descended. [When] he reached the floor, he would turn his face to the north; he walked to the east of the ramp about ten amos. He piled the coals upon the floor at a distance of three handbreadths from the ramp, the place where they would deposit the crop of the bird [olah] and the ashes of the Inner Altar and [of] the Menorah.

His fellows saw him descend and they came running and hastily sanctified their hands and their feet from [the water of] the Laver. They took the shovels and the forks and ascended to the top of the Altar. The limbs and the fats that were not consumed during the night, [the Kohanim] remove them onto the sides of the Altar. If the sides do not hold [these sacrificial parts], [they] arrange them opposite the ledge, on the ramp.

They began piling up the ashes on top of the mound. A mound was in the center of the Altar; at times there were something like three hundred kor [of ashes] on it. And on the festivals they would not remove the ashes [from the Altar] because it was an adornment for the Altar. And in its days the Kohen was never lax in taking out the ashes.

They began bringing up logs to arrange the fire of the pyre. But are all the woods valid for the pyre? Yes! All the woods are valid for the pyre, except for that of an olive [tree] and of a vine. However, with these [woods] they were accustomed: with branches of a fig [tree], and of a nut [tree] and of an oil tree.

[The Kohen] arranged the large pyre to-ward the east, and [the pyre’s] “face” [was] toward the east; and the heads of the inner logs would touch the mound; and there was space between the logs, for they would kindle the chips from there.

They selected from there fine wood of a fig [tree] to arrange the second pyre, for the incense, opposite the southwest corner, drawn four amos northward from the corner, an estimated five se’ahs [of] coals. And on the Sabbath, an estimated eight se’ahs [of] coals, for there they would place the two spoonfuls of frankincense of the Show Bread. The limbs and the fats that were not consumed during the night, [the Kohanim] return them to the pyre. They kindled the two pyres with fire, and [the Kohanim] descended and came to the Chamber of Hewn Stone.

The appointed one said to them: “Come and cast lots! Who slaughters [the tamid offering]? Who throws [its blood]? Who clears the ash from the Inner Altar? Who clears the ash from the Menorah? Who brings the limbs [of the tamid] up onto the ramp [of the Altar]?” The head and the [right] hind leg; the two forelegs; [the fat of] the tail and the [left] hind leg; [the fat of] the chest and the neck; the two flanks; the intestines; and the fine flour; and the chavitim; and the wine. They cast lots; the one who won, won.

The appointed one said to them: “Go out and see if the time for slaughtering has arrived.” If [the time] had arrived, the observer says: “Dawn!” Masya ben Shmuel says: The entire eastern sky has lit up. “As far as Hebron?” And [the observer] says, “Yes!”

The appointed one] said to them: “Go out and bring a lamb from the Chamber of Lambs.” Now, the Chamber of Lambs was in the northwest corner [of the Hall of the Fire], and four chambers were [located] there: One [was] the Chamber of Lambs, and one [was] the Chamber of Receipts, and one [was] the Chamber of the Hall of the Fire, and one [was] a chamber in which they made the Show Bread.

They entered the Chamber of Vessels and took out from there ninety-three silver and gold vessels. They gave the tamid [lamb] to drink with a cup of gold. Even though [the animal] had been examined before evening, they examine it by the light of the torches.

The one who won the privilege of the tamid pulls it and goes to the slaughtering area, and [those] who won the privilege of [carrying] the limbs fol-low him. The slaughtering area was [located] to the north of [the] Altar, and on it were eight dwarf pillars, and a square of cedar [was] on top of them, and iron hooks were set into [the cedar blocks], and there were three sets [of hooks] for each and every one, from which they would hang [the animals] and skin [them], upon marble tables that [stood] between the pillars.