| Case | Ruling | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Why was the dawn confirmed by a lookout? | Once the moonlight was mistaken for dawn; they slaughtered the tamid too early and had to burn it | — |
| What does one who defecated require before the Avodah? | Immersion (tevilah) | — |
| And one who urinated? | Washing of the hands and feet (kiddush) | — |
Bartenura notes what is easy to miss: the episode of the moon mistaken for dawn was not on Yom Kippur — on the tenth of the month the moon cannot rise near daybreak. It is a general Mikdash episode, brought here only to explain why a watchman was later posted to call the true sunrise.
Each morning the lookout was put as a question — had the light spread in the east as far as Chevron? (Mishnat Eretz Yisrael). The Gemara (Yoma 28b, in Melekhet Shelomoh) asks how the moon’s light could be taken for it: a shaft of moonlight climbs straight up like a staff, while the dawn breaks and spreads across the sky, so the two do not resemble one another. Its answer is that this was an overcast morning, when the sun’s light too came broken and patchy between the clouds, and the risen moon passed for the spreading dawn.
To the mishnah’s standing rule — one who relieved himself immerses, one who passed water washes his hands and feet — the Gemara (via Rashi) adds a reason for the washing: the kohein rubs the drops from his feet so that he not appear physically unfit, which could cast an unfair doubt on the legitimacy of his children.
With the mishnah that follows it, this opens a picture of how exacting the Mikdash was about a kohein’s readiness to serve — a discipline of immersion and washing before drawing near to the avodah. The Churban did not relax that standard so much as remove the place that demanded it.