בראשונה כל מי שרוצה לתרום – Every Kohen who is from the same priestly division and wants to remove the ashes in the morning, removes the ashes, for there was no arbitration (by counting out a certain number on the raised fingers of those among whom a decision is to be made) in the matter.

ובזמן שהם מרובים – who come to remove the ashes, this one says: “I am removing the ashes” and that one says “I am removing the ashes,” this is their judgment.

רצים ועולים בכבש – of the altar, which is thirty-two cubits in length.

וכל הקודם – to enter into the upper four cubits of the ramp nearest the top of the altar, is worthy of/merits removing the ashes, and this is their lottery.

ואם היו שניהם שוים – through their entrance, neither one of them merits removing the ashes, but from now, all of them come to take a lottery. And what is the lottery? He who is appointed over the arbitration says to all of them to raise their fingers, that is to say, they should release their fingers so that each person can see his finger, since it is forbidden to count people from the Israelites; therefore, it was necessary for them to release the fingers in order that the fingers can be numbered, and not the people. And how would they do this? They would go around and stand together in a circle and the appointed one comes and takes hold of the turban from the head of one them (see Talmud Yoma 25a) and from him, the arbitration begins to count. And each one of them removes his finger and the appointed one/officer enunciates from his mouth a number and counts, either one hundred or sixty, many more than there are Kohanim present there, and says, whomever finishes with this total, through him will merit. And he begins to count from the one who took it from the head of the turban, and such were all of the arbitrations in the Temple Sanctuary.

אחת או שתים – one finger if he is health or two if he is sick, for the sick are unable to control/have mastery over his fingers, and we releases one [finger], its neighbor is released with it. But the two are not counted other than as one [finger].

ואין מוציאין אגודל במקדש – because of the deceivers, when the end of the numbering draws near and they would understand who would finish, that one standing before him would set out two fingers in order that he would count for two people and the number would hurry to end with him. But the appointed official did not comprehend because a person can distance his thumb from his finger a great deal until it appears as the fingers of two people, which one cannot do with the other fingers.

אלא בפייס – as we have explained.

ארבע פייסות היו שם – four times during the day, they would be gathered to arbitrate, and they would not arbitrate for all of them in one meeting, in order to announce by sound four times that there is a large gathering of people in the courtyard, and that is for the honor of the King (i.e., God), as it is stated (Psalms 55:15): “[Sweet was our fellowship;] we walked together in God’s house.”

מי שוחט – the daily offering (of mid-afternoon).

מי זורק וכו' – all the acts of Divine worship are done at one arbitration/count (i.e., by counting out a certain number of raised fingers of those among whom a decision is to be made. For whomever completed through him the count, according to how we explained it, is worthy, and he casts the blood to the altar after he receives the blood in the bowl (out of which the sprinkling of the blood is done), for the person who casts the blood is the person who receives it. And nearest him is the person who slaughters, and even though the slaughtering precedes the reception of the blood, nevertheless, because the Divine service of the casting is greater than the slaughtering, for the slaughtering is valid [when done] by a foreigner (i.e., a non-Kohen), which is not the case regarding the casting and the reception [of the blood] and further which is the commandment of the Kohanim, therefore, the first one who was found worthy in the arbitration for the casting [of the blood], and the one nearest him, in the slaughtering, and the one next to the slaughterer, removes the ashes from the altar, and the one nearest to the individual who removes the ashes from the altar removes the ashes from the candelabrum/Menorah, and similarly for all of them.

הראש והרגל – of the right side by one Kohen.

ושתי הידים – by a second Kohen.

העוקץ – that is the tail.

והרגל – of the left side, with the third Kohen.

החזה – that is the fat of the of the breast which looks towards the ground, and we sever it this way and that way without the heads of the wing.

והגרה – the place where the ruminant, which is the neck, and through it are attached the windpipe, the lung with the liver and the heart. The breast and the neck is with a fourth Kohen.

ושתי הדפנות – with a fifth Kohen.

והקרבים – with a sixth [Kohen].

והסולת – the one-tenth of an Ephah for the meal offering of his libation of the daily afternoon offering with a seventh [Kohen].

והחביתים – half of one-tenth of an Ephah for the meal offering of the High Priest which is offered with the daily afternoon offering on each day, as it states (Leviticus 6:13): “half of it in the morning and half of it in the evening,” with an eighth Kohen.

והיין – three LOGS for the libation of the daily afternoon offering, with a ninth [Kohen].

י"ג כהנים זוכין בו – with this arbitration, thirteen Divine services of the Priests who are appointed for this according to the order that is written in the Mishnah.

כדרך הלוכו – during his life.

היה קרב – the daily afternoon offering. The first teacher holds that the best and most beautiful is offered first, but [Shimon] Ben Azzai holds that it is according to the way in which it is walked, the head and the leg, the breast and the neck, and the two forelegs, and the chest surrounding the lungs and the rib, and the rump and the hind legs. But the Halakha is not according to Ben Azzai.

חדשים לקטורת – this is what they would announce in the Temple court, that is to say, whomever was not worthy of the incense all of his life, should come and decide by chance. But they would not allow someone who was found worthy of it once [already] to repeat it, because he becomes wealthy as it is written (Deuteronomy 33:10-11): “They shall offer You incense to savor [and whole-offerings on Your altar]. Bless, O LORD, his substance…” For since every Kohen who offers incense would become wealthy and blessed on its account, therefore, they would not allow a person to repeat it, in order that all could be wealthy and blessed through it.

חדשים גם ישנים – he who was worthy of the lottery other times and he who never was worthy of it ever, come and participate in the lottery.

מי מעלה אברים מן הכבש למזבח – when they would bring up the limbs from the slaughter house, they would not bring them to the Altar, but rather place them on the lower half of the ramp in the east and conduct another lottery – who will bring them from the place where they are lying on the ramp to the altar, and they would do such because of [the Biblical adage] (Proverbs 14:28): “A numerous people is the glory of a king…”

תמיד קרב – from the time the limbs are brought and onward, it is considered.

עצמו – on every day, nine [priests]; six for the limbs and the innards, as we stated above (Mishnah 3) and one for the fine flour, and one for the baked cakes and one for the wine.

ובחג – [and on the holiday] which requires two libations, one of wine and one of water and in the hand of one Kohen is a flask (i.e., a bottle with a wide belly and a narrow neck) .

ושל בין הערבים – for on each day, two [things] are in their hands, two pieces of wood, to add to the wood of the arrangement of wood on the altar in the Temple, as it is written (Leviticus 1:7): “[The sons of Aaron the priest shall]…lay out wood upon the fire,” for if it was not the matter of the morning daily-offering, of which it is was already stated (Leviticus 6:5): “every morning the priest shall feed wood to it,” give it for the matter of the daily offering of the mid-afternoon where they add two pieces of wood.

הבשר בחמשה – just like the limbs of the sheep, so too the limbs of the ram.

הסלת – it was two-tenths of an Ephah, with two Kohanim.

במה דברים אמורים – that we require all these Kohanim for all the animals and that we need an arbitration.

אם רצה להקריב – an individual Kohen [who offers] everything without an arbitration.

הפשתן ונתוחן – of an individual and of the community, they are equivalent to be considered fit with a “foreigner” (i.e., a non-Kohen) and they do not require a Kohen.