And the determining factor is whether knowledge of the sighting reaches them in time to act upon it. If news of the sighting reaches them after sunset, fasting thereafter is obligatory in any case. But must the day already past be made up? They may learn during the month that the crescent was sighted in another region, although it was not sighted anywhere near them. The more likely correct view is that, if it was sighted nearby—meaning somewhere from which news could have reached them on the first day—this is like its having been sighted in their own town without the news reaching them.

If, however, it was sighted somewhere from which news could not have reached them until after the first day had passed, they need not make up that day. For the people’s day of fasting is the day on which they fast, and they can only fast on a day when sighting the crescent is possible for them. Since news of it could not have reached them that day, it was not their day of fasting. The same applies to ending the fast and performing the rites.

But if it becomes established for these people during the month that the crescent had been sighted, should they end their fast on the basis of that sighting? If the news reaches them through a single informant, however, they do not end their fast; for grounds on which to end their fast have become established for them during the month, and they do not make up the first day, so their fasting amounts to twenty-nine days. This accords with the view of those who take differences in lunar horizons into account: if someone begins fasting on the basis of a sighting in one place, then travels somewhere whose people sighted it earlier, he ends his fast with them and does not make up the first day. If their sighting was later, however, the reports transmitted from our scholars differ here: if they say that he should end his fast