If they do not know him, they send another [pair of witnesses] with him to testify about him.  Originally they accepted testimony about the new moon from anyone, [but] after the heretics did harm, they enacted that they should not accept [testimony] except from known people.

Originally they used to light torches; [but] after the Cutheans did harm, they enacted that messengers should go forth.

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.

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.

The head of the beis din says, “It is sanctified!”  And all the people respond after him, “It is sanctified! It is sanctified!”  Whether it appeared at its [expected] time or whether it did not appear at its [expected] time, they sanctify [the day].  R’ Elazar bar Tzadok says: If it did not appear at its [expected] time, they do not sanctify, for it has already been sanctified by Heaven.

Rabban Gamliel had moon-shaped forms on a tablet and on the wall of his upper chamber, which he would show the simple folk, and say [to them], “Did you see [the moon] like this or like that?”  It happened that two [witnesses] came and said, “We saw it in the morning in the east and in the evening in the west.” R’ Yochanan ben Nuri said, “They are false witnesses!” [But] when they came to Yavneh, Rabban Gamliel accepted them.  On another occasion two [witnesses] came and said, “We saw it at its [expected] time,” but on the night of the added day it did not appear; and Rabban Gamliel accepted them.  R’ Dosa ben Harkinas said, “They are false witnesses. How can they testify that a woman gave birth and the next day her belly is between her teeth?”  R’ Yehoshua said to him, “I agree with your argument.”

Rabban Gamliel sent [a message] to him, “I decree upon you that you come to me with your staff and your money on the day that Yom Kippur will fall according to your reckoning.”  R’ Akiva went and found him troubled, [so] he said to him, “I can elucidate that whatever Rabban Gamliel did is [validly] done, for it says: These are the holidays of HASHEM, holy convocations, that you shall declare them —- whether [declared] in their [expected] time or not in their [expected] time, I have no holidays but these.”  He came to R’ Dosa ben Harkinas, who said to him, “If we come to reconsider [the decisions of] Rabban Gamliel’s beis din, then we must reconsider [the decisions of] every beis din that arose from the days of Moses until now, as it says: There went up Moses and Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. Why are the names of the elders not expressly mentioned? Only to each [us] that every three [people] who arose as a beis din for Israel are considered like the beis din of Moses.”  [Then] he took his staff and his money in his hand and went to Yavneh to Rabban Gamliel on the day that Yom Kippur fell according to his reckoning.  Rabban Gamliel stood up and kissed him on his head, and said to him, “Come in peace, my master and my disciple! My master in wisdom, and my disciple in that you accepted my words.”