[Avodah] L'Ayin Haya Noteh

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Sep 07, 2012 at 07:11:51PM +0300, Liron Kopinsky wrote:
:> "The heads on either side of the missing piece were pointing which
:> way? Were they pointing north like this (] or to the south like [)?" By
:> translating to a language that goes the other way, my diagrams reverse.

: I don't understand your answer. Whether you are writing in hebrew or
: english, the moon, at the new moon, must look like "[)". Why would the
: diagrams reverse in one language or the other?

(] and [) are not only mirror images, they are also the same shape rotated
180 deg. IOW, if you are facing the other direction, my [) will look like
(] to you. Your insistance that a moon with the "horns" pointing north
must be drawn like "[)" translates to your assuming that north is to the
left, ie east on top. A logical assumption, east is usually "up" in maps
of that era, particularly Jewish ones. If we draw it with west on top,
then "horns" pointing north would be "(]".

For the same reason, whether the "horns" actually pointed left or right
would not be consistent among eidim who are facing each other.

My answer assumed that Rashi wasn't so much turning the page of his
notebook into a map (E on top) but turning the line of text into the
path of the moon. And therefore even though W on top would be weird,
that wasn't his consideration. Not east, west, north, south, but forward
vs backward.

Since the moon is heading north (actually, somewhat north-west), north
is toward the end of the sentence. Which is why I said it depends on the
direction used by the language you're writing in.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Life is complex.
micha at aishdas.org                Decisions are complex.
http://www.aishdas.org               The Torah is complex.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                                - R' Binyamin Hecht