בֵּין הָעַרְבַּיִם בְּאַחַד עָשָׂר הוּא עַצְמוֹ בְּתִשְׁעָה וּשְׁנַיִם בְּיָדָם שְׁנֵי גְזִירֵי עֵצִים
In the late afternoon, eleven [priests participate in the service]. [The daily offering] itself [is sacrificed by] nine [priests], and there are two [additional] priests in whose hands are two logs [that are placed on the altar].
We continued our learning of the operational aspects of daily Temple sacrifice. As we learned last week, the tamid offering—the always, daily offering—was offered twice daily, once in the morning and once in the later afternoon. We learned that for the latter offering, eleven priests participated. Nine of those priests offered the sacrifice itself, and two were available to place two logs of wood on the altar.
Ben Ha’arbayim means the middle of the afternoon. As I learned in Pesachim 58A:
אלא אמר רבא מצותו דתמיד משינטו צללי ערב מאי טעמא דאמר קרא בין הערבי’ מעידנא דמתחיל שמשא למערב
Rather, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi’s source is rejected, and instead Rava said, “The mitzva of the daily offering is from when the sun begins to descend westward so that the evening shadows slant eastward, shortly after midday. What is the reason for this? It is because the verse states, ‘In the afternoon [bein ha’arbayim], which we understand to mean from the time that the sun begins to descend westward [ma’arav].'”
The rabbis calculated halachic times using a system of dividing periods of time by twelve. Interestingly, whereas bein ha’arbayim refers to the middle of what we think of as the afternoon, a similar term indicating twilight—bein hashmashot—refers to the time between sunset and dusk or nightfall. I am intrigued by the ways in which our Mishnah outlines the precise number of priests for each aspect of Temple service. I look forward to digging in more