Tamid 3:6 - 3:7

הטני – it is the language of (Deuteronomy 26:2): “[you shall take some of every first fruit of he soil, which you harvest from the land that the LORD your God is giving you], put in a basket.” It is similar to a basket but its mouth is wide.

והכוז (oil vessel – in the shape of a large wine cup) – a ladle; in the Arabic language they call it ALCUZ.

שני מפתחות – to open two locks that are on the northern wicket.

תרקב (three kabs, a dry measure) – a utensil that holds three kabim, and the language of “tarkav,” is two [kabim] and a kab, and it was similar to a tarkav, but it didn’t hold other than two kabs and a half, and it was of gold.

אחד יורד לאמת השחי – the northern wicket as is taught in the Mishnah further on (see Mishnah 7): “He came to the northern wicket/door.” It had wo locks, the one was below, inside at the bottom of the opening, and the Kohen that wanted to enter, would put in his forearm into the hole in the wall until his armpit and open it with his hand through the inside, and the other [lock], he opens with a key immediately without effort like all the other openings.

כיון (directly) – like [Tractate Pesahim 37a – Bartenura, at least as published in the standard יכין ובועז edition of the Mishnah, states that this quote is on Pesahim 37b]: “he may form the dough in a mould and attach it to the cake directly” (i.e., well-fitting without loss of time), meaning to say, quickly without trouble.

ושני פשפשין היו לו לשער הגדול – this is the gate of the Temple/the hall containing the golden altar. And it had doors at the beginning of the beams of the wall that was six cubits thick, and other doors at the end of its beams towards the inside. These two wickets/doors had two small openings, one from the right of the large gate and one from its left, a bit distant from the gate. On that which was in the south, it is written (Ezekiel 44:2): “This gate is to be kept shut and is not to be opened” refers to the future, and from something undefined such it was in the Jerusalem Temple, but the wicket that is in the north, he would open it through a hole near it where one inserts his hand until the armpit and bends his hand inside, and through another lock that is there, it is opened immediately without effort.

ופותח הפשפש ונכנס משם לתא (to the cell/compartment back of the Holy of Holies) – and it is one chamber open to the hall containing the golden altar.

ומן התא נכנס להיכל – and he goes in the cavity of the hall containing the golden altar until the large gate that is at the end of the beams of the wall from the inside and opens it and he comes to the second gate and stands inside and opens it.

נגר (door-bolt, pin fitting into sockets top and bottom) – a bolt that breaks through from one end of the door to the [other] end of the door. Another explanation, the נגר is a peg/nail (i.e., something fastened) that is wedged in in the back of the door in an incision in the lintel/door-sill.

ואת הפותחות – the locks and the enclosures.