The Kohanim would stand guard in three places in the Holy Temple: In the Chamber of Avtinas, in the Chamber of the Ray, and in the Hall of the Fire. The Chamber of Avtinas and the Chamber of the Ray were upper stories, and the youngsters would guard there. The Hall of the Fire [was] a dome. And it was a large house, encircled with ledges of stone. And the elders of the beis av would sleep there, and the keys of the Courtyard were in their hands. And the young Kohanim [would sleep] each with his pillow on the ground.  They would not sleep in [their] holy vestments, rather they would remove [them] and fold [them], and place them beneath their heads, and they would cover themselves with their personal garment.  If one of [the Kohanim] experienced a seminal emission, he would exit [the Hall of the Fire] and proceed through the tunnel that went under the Birah, and there were lamps burning here and there, until he reached the immersion room. A large fire was there, as well as a latrine of dignity. This was its dignity: [If] one found it closed, he knew that there was a person there; [if he found it] open, he knew that there was no person there. He descended and immersed, ascended and dried himself off, and warmed himself in front of the large fire. He came and sat next to his fellow Kohanim until the gates were opened; he departed and went on his way.

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.