There was a large courtyard in Jerusalem which was called Beis Ya’azek, and there all the witnesses gathered, and the beis din interrogated them there, and made them large feasts in order that they be accustomed to come.  Originally they did not move from there all day; [then] Rabban Gamliel the Elder enacted that they should [be permitted to] walk two thousand cubits in every direction.  And not only these [witnesses], but also a midwife who comes to aid a delivery, and one who comes to rescue [people] from a fire, or from an [attacking] army, or from a [flooding] river, or from a fallen building —- they are considered like the people of the city and they have [the right to walk] two thousand cubits in every direction.

How do they interrogate the witnesses? The pair that arrives first is interrogated first, and the elder is brought in and they say to him, “Tell how you saw the moon —- facing the sun or away from the sun? To its north or to its south? How high was it? And which way was it leaning? And how wide was it?”  If he said, “Facing the sun,” he said nothing.  Then they would have the second [witness] brought in and interrogate him. If their words are found to coincide, their testimony is valid.  And they ask the rest of the pairs [of witnesses only the] main points; not that they needed them, but so that they should not leave disappointed, in order that they should be accustomed to come.