6. “How did they examine the witnesses?” “The first pair which came were examined first, and they brought in the eldest of them, and they said to him, ‘Tell us how you saw the moon—(her horns) toward the sun, or away from the sun? To the north, or to the south? What was her altitude? Toward where her declination? And what was her breath?’ If he said ‘toward the sun,’ he said nothing. Afterward they brought in the second and examined; if the evidence was found to agree, the evidence stood. The remaining pairs of witnesses were then superficially examined, not because there was necessity for their evidence, but not to discourage them, that they might be willing to come again.”
7. The chief of the Sanhedrin said, “(the feast) is sanctified”; and all the people answered after him, “Sanctified, sanctified.” Whether the new moon had been seen in its season, or not, they sanctified it. R. Eleazar, son of Zadok, said, “if it were not seen in its season, they did not sanctify it, for heaven had already sanctified it.”
8. Rabban Gamaliel had on a tablet and on the wall of his chamber figures and phases of the moon which he showed to ignorant witnesses, and said, “was it like this you saw her, or like that?” It happened once that two witnesses came, and said, “we saw the moon in the morning in the east, and in the evening in the west”; said R. Jochanan, son of Nourri, “they are false witnesses,” but when they came to Jamnia, Rabban Gamaliel received their evidence. Two other witnesses came, and said, “we saw the moon in her season, but on the next evening of the intercalary day she was invisible,” and R. Gamaliel received them. Said R. Dosah, son of Arkenaz, “they are false witnesses, for how can they testify of a woman being delivered, and on the morrow she is still pregnant?” To him said R. Joshua, “I approve thy words.”
9. Rabban Gamaliel sent to (R. Joshua), “I order thee to come to me with thy staff and money on the day of atonement, according to thy reckoning.”(298) R. Akivah went to (R. Joshua), and found him sorrowing. He said to him, “I can prove that all Rabban Gamaliel has done is well done, for it is said, ‘These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons,’(299) or out of their seasons; I have no other feasts but these.” R. Joshua came to R. Dose, son of Arkenaz. He said to him, “if we are to judge the tribunal of Rabban Gamaliel, we must also judge the tribunals which have existed from the days of Moses till now,” for it is said, “Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel.”(300) “And why were not the names of the elders mentioned, but to inform us that every three men in Israel who compose a tribunal, are as a tribunal of Moses?” R. Joshua took his staff and money in his hand, and went to Jamnia to Rabban Gamaliel on the day when the atonement began, according to his reckoning. Rabban Gamaliel stood up and kissed him on his head, saying to him, “come in peace, my master and disciple—my master in wisdom, my disciple in obeying my words.”