of purity. It was disqualified if it was slaughtered before noon, as says, "Between the evenings." It was fit if it was slaughtered before the daily offering of the afternoon, but only if someone had been stirring the blood until the blood of the daily offering had been sprinkled. And if that blood had already been sprinkled, the Passover sacrifice was still fit. The Mishnah taught that one transgressed a negative commandment if one slaughtered a Passover sacrifice while in the possession of leavened grain products (chamets). Rabbi Judah taught that this also applied to the daily offering. Rabbi Simeon taught that if one slaughtered a Passover sacrifice on the fourteenth with specific intent for it, one was guilty, but if one slaughtered it without specific intent, one was exempt. For all other sacrifices, however, whether they were with or without specific intent, one was exempt. If one slaughtered a Passover sacrifice on the festival of Passover itself with specific intent, one was exempt; if without specific intent, one was guilty. With respect to all other sacrifices, one was guilty if one sacrificed them during the festival with or without specific intent, except for offerings brought to expiate sin (chatat) slaughtered without specific intent. The Mishnah reported that they slaughtered the Passover sacrifice in three groups—assembly, congregation, and Israel—as says, "The whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall slaughter it." The first group entered until they filled the Temple courtyard, and then they closed the courtyard gates. Then they sounded Tekiah (a long uninterrupted call), Teruah (a long staccato call), and Tekiah. The priests would stand in double rows holding beakers of silver and beakers of gold, one row completely silver, and one row completely gold. None of the beakers had flat bottoms, so that the priests could not put them down and allow the blood coagulate. A common Israelite would slaughter the Passover sacrifice, and a priest would receive the blood and give it to a fellow priest, who would give it to a fellow priest, and so on until the priest nearest to the altar would sprinkle it in one sprinkling at the base of the altar. That priest would then return an empty beaker to the priest next to him, who would give it to a fellow priest, and so on, each priest both receiving full beakers and also returning empty beakers. When the first group