[Avodah] R' Nissim Karelitz's Beis Din: Kohanim cannot fly from Ben Gurion

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Tue, Nov 01, 2016 at 07:53:29PM +0200, Eli Turkel via Avodah wrote:
: First I completely agree with Rbn Katz.  My only point was the question
: whether up is defined as a radius from the earth's center to the cemetery
: and onwards or by some vertical to a plane on the earth's center.
: Obviously for points nearby the difference is negligible but not for points
: far away.

I don't understand the latter possibility. Chazal don't talk about an up
that fits the definition.

Take a plane parallel to the tangent at Jerusalem. Now go far away,
say to Pumbedisa. The trig ended up being over my head, but let's say
the resulting proposed "up" would be 9 deg off from vertical. Wouldn't
Shas have to had mention that fact that someone in a tree slightly to
the west of a qever may be tamei?

The "line from the middle of the earth through the meis" definition of
lemaalah is the only definition I could think of that ends up with the
commonsensical (ignoring the earth's curvature) definition the gemara
assumes.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "The worst thing that can happen to a
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