Me’ila/ Tamid 30: What is Said When the Sun Rises

The kohanim would partake in four lotteries every morning to dictate who who perform different parts of the sacrificial service.  They would look for the sunrise just after the lottery was performed, which marked the beginning of the day.  When seeing the sun, they would yell, "Barkai!", There is light!. Our first Mishna told us that Matya ben Shmuel said that the priest would then say, "is the sky illuminated as far as Chevron?"  It explains that this was required because a previous error, where moonlight made the kohanim believe that they had reached the morning, and they began the avoda prayer began early and the korban tamid, the first sacrifice of the day, was destroyed.

The Rambam thinks that Matya ben Shmuel was one of the tanna'im and he was challenging the first position in the Mishna - arguing that the question was presented to confirm that the sun had risen even in Chevron.  Tosafot Yeshanim state that Matya ben Shmuel was the name of the priest who was responsible for the lotteries that were done in the Temple, for his name is also mentioned in that context in Massekhet Shekalim.  The Meiri says that Matya ben Shmuel's question asked whether the priest watching for the sun could see all the way to Chevron in the south.  The Jerusalem Talmud notes that everyone agrees that the reference was to Chevron because they wanted to take note of the city where our ancestors were buried.