Parah 3:8 - 3:9

אישי כהן גדול- because that sometimes it is done through the High Priest, but any Kohen is fit/appropriate for it, whether with the Kohen Gadol whether with a Deputy High Priest or whether with a common Kohen.

ונסתפק (dried himself off) – and wiped himself off.

עצים – to make from them a pile of wood on the altar in the Temple for burning. They were set up/laid out there.

וארנים (pines, cedar) – it is the language of “Or plants firs, and the rain makes them grow” that is stated in Isaiah (44:14), and it is a species of cedar, and also cypress. And all of these trees are considered preferable from the rest of the trees for the needs of their burning.

כמין מגדל – wide from the bottom and narrow from the top.

פותחין בהן חלונות – to bring in through them the fire to kindle the wood.

וחזיתה מערבה – the face of the pile of wood on the altar in the Temple and its appearance, and it is the place that ignites the fire with kindling wood, he would face to the western side, that is, towards the Temple, as the Temple was to west of the Mount of Olives.

בחבל של מגג (rope made of a species of reed) – rope made from a species of reed-grass. In order that all of it actions in the matter will be that it is not susceptible to receive defilement.

ופניה למערב – to the side of the Temple.

ר' יהודה אומר בימינו היה מקבל – like the rest of the reception of the blood of Holy Things that if he received it in his left [hand], it is invalid. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda, for since its blood is not sprinkled on the Altar it is not like the other Holy Things in this matter.

ונזה בימינו – as it is written (Numbers 19:4): “Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger [and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Tent of Meeting],” the usual that is of fingers, meaning to say, the finger of the right hand that a person handles with it always.

כנגד בית קודש הקדשים – as it is written (Numbers 19:4): “and sprinkle It [seven times] towards the front of the Tent of Meeting.”

על כל הזייה טבילה – on each sprinkling that he would make, he would immerse his finger in the blood, that the remainder of the blood that is on his finger is invalid for sprinkling.

גמר מלהזות קינח ידו בגופה של פרה – in order that he would burn the blood with It, as it is written (Numbers 19:5): “The cow shall be burned in his sight – its hide, flesh, and blood shall be burned,” and between sprinkling to sprinkling, he would wipe his finger in the rim of the bowl out of which the sprinkling is done, but not in the body of the cow, because of cords/string that were attached on his finger that it is a disgrace to do sprinkling with them.

אליתות (wood of the fig-tree) - small pieces of wood that they kindle the pile of wood on the altar. [The word] אליתות is the language of fat-tail. Like (Isaiah 7:4): “[Do not be afraid and do not lose heart on account of those two] smoking stubs of firebrands.”

בחריות (dried branches, twigs used for fuel) – vine-shoots of palm-trees. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Akiba.