5. There was a large court in Jerusalem called Beth Yangzek,(296) there all the witnesses met, and there the Sanhedrin examined them. And they made great feasts for them, that they might come often. At first they did not stir from thence all day.(297) Rabban Gamaliel the elder ordained, that they might go 2,000 cubits on every side. And not only they, but the midwife going to a birth; and they who go to rescue from fire, or from enemies, or from inundation, or from fallen buildings. These are as inhabitants of the place, and they have 2,000 cubits on every side. 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.”