How did they light the torches?  They would bring long poles of cedar-wood, reeds, balsam-wood, and fiber-chips of flax. Someone would tie them together with rope, climb to the mountaintop, set fire to them and wave [the torch] back and forth, up and down, until he saw his colleague doing likewise on top of the second mountain; and so, too, on top of the third mountain.

And from where did they light the torches? From the Mount of Olives to Sarteva, from Sarteva to Grofina, from Grofina to Chavran, from Chavran to Beis Biltin. From Beis Biltin they did not move, but [the signaler] would wave [the torch] back and forth, up and down, until he saw the entire Diaspora before him like a mass of fire.