No início, eles acendiam faróis [para informar aos distantes que o mês havia sido santificado, e eles não precisavam contratar mensageiros para enviá-los ao exílio para avaliá-los, pois eles seriam avisados pelos faróis.] Quando os cutitas tentaram minar (a instituição da Lua Nova) [e eles também acenderam faróis na hora errada, para enganá-los], eles ordenaram que os mensageiros saíssem [porque beth-din acenderia faróis apenas por um mês que foi santificado no trigésimo dia; e se não os acendiam na véspera do trigésimo dia, todos sabiam que o mês estava cheio. E uma vez beth-din intercalou o mês e não acendeu faróis na véspera do trigésimo dia— e os cutitas os acenderam em suas colinas e enganaram os judeus no exílio, tornando o mês defeituoso (em vez de cheio)].
Bartenura on Mishnah Rosh Hashanah
היו משיא ין משואות – After they sanctified the Month, they did not need to hire messengers to be sent to the Diaspora to inform [them], since the fire-signals would announce them (i.e., that the New Month had been sanctified).
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English Explanation of Mishnah Rosh Hashanah
Introduction
Above in 1:3 we learned that the court used to send messengers out to let the people in the Diaspora know that the new month had been decreed. In our mishnah we learn that this custom was the result of another attempt by a non-Pharisaic/rabbinic group of Jews to disrupt the calendar.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Rosh Hashanah
משקלקלו הכותים – they also would carry torches at the inappropriate time, to deceive [the people], for the Jewish court would not carry torches other than at a [New] Month that was sanctified on the thirtieth day, and they would not use torches on the eve of the thirtieth day as everyone would know that the month is a leap one. And one time, the Jewish court declared the [New] Month] a leap one, and they did not make torches for the eve of the thirtieth day, and the Cuthians carried their torches in their mountains and deceived the members of the Diaspora to make it (i.e., the month) lacking a day.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Rosh Hashanah
Originally they used to light torches [to signal that the new month had been decreed]. When the Samaritans disrupted this, they decreed that messengers should go out. In tomorrow’s mishnah we shall learn how they used to light torches, or beacons, in order to let everyone in the Diaspora know that a new month had been decreed. Here we learn that they stopped doing this because the Samaritans disrupted the process by lighting torches on the night of the thirtieth even though the court had not decreed a new month. Again we see that one of the sects attempts to have other Jews, Jews who follow a rabbinic calendar, celebrate their holidays on the wrong day.
