The administrator said to them, “Go out and see if the time for slaughtering has arrived.” If it had arrived, the one who sees [it] says, “Barkai!”  Mattisya ben Shmuel says: “The whole of the east has lit up.”  “As far as Hebron?”  And he says, “Yes!”

Why was this necessary? Because one time the moon's light rose and they thought that the east had lit up, so they slaughtered the daily sacrifice, and then [had to] take it out to the place of burning.  They took the Kohen Gadol down to the mikveh.  This was the rule in the Temple: Whoever moved his bowels needed immersion, and whoever urinated needed to wash his hands and his feet.