Tosefta for Rosh Hashanah 44:11
<big><strong>מתני׳</strong></big> בראשונה היו משיאין משואות משקלקלו הכותים התקינו שיהו שלוחין יוצאין
and the man who hired you shall be laid out on the post.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' For a flogging.');"><sup>14</sup></span> There and then they ordained that testimony should be received only from persons who were known to them. <big><b>MISHNAH: </b></big>ORIGINALLY THEY USED TO LIGHT<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' The Hebrew word is massi'in, which literally means 'raise up'.');"><sup>15</sup></span> BEACONS.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' To convey the news of the New Moon to the diaspora in Babylon.');"><sup>16</sup></span>
Tosefta Megillah
When would they light the torches (מַשִּׂיאִין not מסיעין)? It was on the evening of the additional day (see Rosh Hashanah 22b:15). How would they do it? If it fell on Erev Shabbat or Shabbat, they light the torches on behalf [of the new month] after Shabbat. Said Rabbi Eliezer son of Rabbi Tzadok, this is how the fellowship that was in Jerusalem conducted itself: Some went to a house of feasting, and others to a house of mourning, and others to a betrothal feast, and others to a wedding feast, [and] others to the "week of the son" (i.e., celebrating the birth of a baby boy), and others to the "gathering of bones" (preceding a funeral, see Moed Katan 1:5). [With respect to] the week of the son and the gathering of bones, the week of the son takes precedence to the gathering of bones. [With respect to] the house of feasting and the house of mourning, the house of feasting takes precedence over the house of mourning. Rabbi Yishmael would give precedence to the house of mourning over everything else, as it says (Ecc. 7:2), "It is better to go to a house of mourning [than to go to a house of feasting]." Rabbi Meir says in the name of Rabbi Akiva, what do we learn from "and the living will place it in his heart (ibid.)"? Perform [an act of kindness] and they will perform it for you; accompany [the dead] so they will accompany you; eulogize, so they will eulogize you; and bury, so they will bury you.
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