[Avodah] Davening direction

[Eli Turkel]

On Mon, Oct 31, 2022 at 9:58 AM Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org> wrote:
> First thing I would highlight is that the question is one only faced
> by acharonim.... until Jews reached such far-flung locations, the
> directions were within the usual fuzziness....

> Given that it's all about kavvanah, I would think it depends on the person.
> Most shuls should do what's intuitive, even if it's technically wrong.
...
> But the minyan at MIT, or anyone working on MyZmanim (for examples),
> perhaps should be facing along the great circle. To STEM nerds, the
> great circle direction may feel more real and intuitive.

I agree that one certainly needs only the general direction and need not
use a compass

The app on my phone seems to use the great circle. As a scientist I
understand what that means.

However, in my mind NY is in the north and Israel is more tropical. So
facing north-east seems counterintuitive even though flights from NY to
Israel go north. As Micha points out it is even stranger in LA Actually
my preference would be for the old fashioned two dimensional maps.

I would imagine that achronim that denied that the earth is a globe
would agree  -)

ELI
-- 
Eli Turkel