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

[via Avodah]

From: Zev Sero via Avodah <avodah at lists.aishdas.org>
>  first not everyone agrees with the psak of R Karelitz. Among the reasons
>  are precisely that perhaps tumah does not really go on "forever". In
>  addition to questions about the moon how about accounting for the
>  curvature of the earth? [--RET]

What about it?  How is it  relevant?   at any given point in the 
universe, you are either  above a grave or you are not.



-- 
Zev  Sero          




>>>>>
 
At any given point in the universe, what do the words "above" and "below"  
even /mean/?
 
 
The curvature of the earth may not be relevant but the earth's rotation  
around its axis surely is.  Our planet is rotating at a rate of  about a 
thousand miles an hour.  It's also moving around the sun at about  66,000 miles 
an hour.  It's not obvious to us, partly because our  atmosphere moves right 
along with our planet.  So when we look up we  might see a nice puffy cloud 
or two that may seem to be right above our  heads.  The clouds are not 
racing backwards at a thousand miles an hour,  they're moving with us.  
 
But how far out in space is this true?  If you were standing in a  
graveyard and you looked up and saw, say, Orion's belt, would that mean that a  
kohen could not travel to one of Orion's stars because the tumah from the  
cemetery extends all the way UP to those stars?  But no, in the course of  the 
night, Orion moves!  (Well, our planet moves.)  So now where is  "up"?  Where 
is "above"?
 
I could also pose the problem a different way.  Let's say you're on a  ride 
in an amusement park, some kind of Tilt-a-Whirl, and the ride is such  that 
it twirls you around.  Above your head is let's say a transparent  canopy.  
No matter which way you are twirled the canopy remains "above"  you.  But 
the sights you can see through the canopy change every second so  that at one 
moment the sky is above you and then the grass is "above" you and  then the 
horizon is "above" you.  Maybe you can see some mountains in the  distance 
or the seashore, and as you twirl, now the mountains and now the beach  are 
"above" you, as seen through the transparent canopy which is the only thing  
that is indubitably above you as your cabin spins.
 
It seems to me that the atmosphere, like that transparent canopy, must  be 
the limit of "above" a grave.  (How high? I don't know.) Otherwise  all of 
outer space in every direction is "above" us as we spin!
 

--Toby  Katz
t613k at aol.com
..
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