Whether it [the new moon] was clearly visi-ble, [or] whether it was not clearly visible, they could desecrate the Sabbath because of it.  R’ Yose says: If it was clearly visible, they could not desecrate the Sabbath because of it.

It happened that more than forty pairs [of witnesses] passed [on their way to beis din], and R’ Akiva detained them in Lod.  Rabban Gamliel sent him [the following message]: If you detain the public, you are placing a stumbling-block in their path for the future.

A father and his son who saw the new moon should go [to beis din]; not that they can be paired together [as witnesses], but [so that] if one of them is disqualified, the second may be paired with another.  R’ Shimon says: A father and his son, and all rela- tives are eligible for testimony about the new moon.  Said R’ Yose, “It happened that Toviah the physician saw the new moon in Jerusalem —- he, his son, and his freed slave; and the Kohanim accepted him and his son, and disqualified his slave. But when they came before the beis din, they accepted him and his slave, and disqualified his son.”

The following are ineligible [as witnesses]: a dice-player, usurers, pigeon flyers, dealers in seventh-year [produce], and slaves.  This is the rule: Any testimony for which a woman is ineligible, they too are ineligible for it.