זבחים ו׳:ג׳ - ו׳:ד׳

ומקיפים דרך שמאל – cause to go around the Altar for the needs of the Divine Service. Such as for example to bringing of the blood of the sin-offerings and for the arrangement of the pile of wood on the altar or to turn over the limbs with a hook/curved pin. And the descend on the western side of the ramp which is on the left of those who ascend to the altar in their coming up.

חוץ מן העולה לג' דברים אלו – that are done in the southwestern corner, which are libation of the water, and the wine and the burnt-offering of the fowl, and when he goes up to the altar, he turns to the surrounding ledge to the left in that corner and when he goes back the same way (see Tractate Zevahim 63b) on the path that he came up. With the libation of the water and wine, lest it be affected by smoke in the smoke of the altar while he is turning to the right and surrounding to the left and they will cause them to lose their taste and their fragrance, but we require (Numbers 28:31): “see that they are without blemish-with their libations,” that their libations will be pure. And the burnt-offering of the fowl also lest it be affected by the smoke and it dies.

היה מולק את ראשה (pinch the bird’s neck with the finger nail) – he would hold its two wings with his two fingers the span from the little finger to the thumb of a spread hand and a fistful of the meal-offering in his left hand, and the bird on the side of his hand and the face of the bird to the side of the back of his hand, that the neck would be above, and he stretches/extends its neck of the throat on the width of his two fingers, the index finger and the arm and he pinches with his finger nail. And this is one of the hardest forms of Divine service that is in the Temple.

ואינו מבדיל – [and he doesn’t separate] the head from the body, but rather severs the spinal column and the nape and most of its flesh is with it until he reaches the gullet or the windpipe and takes one organ alone and pinches the bird’s neck with his finger nail, as it is written (Leviticus 5:8) “[He shall bring them to the priest, who shall offer first the one for the purification offering, pinching its head at the nape] without severing it.” (see Talmud Zevakhim 65b)

ומזה מדמה – he holds the bird/fowl and sprinkles. For he does not sprinkle neither with a utensil or with a finger, but with the body of the bird/fowl.

היה מתמצה (drains/empties out) – that he offers up the place in the bird’s neck to the altar and presses it on the wall and the blood drains out and goes down to the base [of the altar]. For regarding the sin-offering of the fowl/bird, it is written (Leviticus 5:9): “He shall sprinkle some of the blood of the purification offering on the side of the altar and what remains of the blood shall be drained out at the base of the altar,” Which wall do the remnants belong to and he drains out the blood to the base of the altar? I would say that this is the lowest wall, that is from the red line and below, for if it was the upper wall, that is from the red line and above, sometimes it (i.e., the blood) would drain out to the surrounding ledge, for since he would make it above the surrounding ledge that the red line is below the surrounding ledge by a cubit.