[Avodah] Davening direction

[Zev Sero]

On 31/10/22 10:18, Eli Turkel via Avodah wrote:
> However, in my mind NY is in the north and Israel is more tropical. So
> facing north-east seems counterintuitive

Again this is an artifact of a lifetime of looking at Mercator maps. 
Chazal never saw such a map and would have thought of things very 
differently.

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

Which achronim denied something that the entire world has agreed on 
since Chazal's day?  The Bavli Amora'im seem to have not yet heard of 
this "modern discovery", but in EY they had.   Certainly the Rishonim 
all knew.

But assuming there are such achronim, what makes you think they had a 
Mercator map in mind rather than a flat polar projection, or some other 
weird thing, which might well have a great circle line, or some other 
line?

It's only on a Mercator map that a rhumb line looks straight.  That's 
what Mercator maps are *for*.  They're good when you're trying to 
navigate by compass; they give you a heading which, if you stick to it, 
will eventually take you where you want to go, though not by the 
shortest route.   And since this is usually exactly what sailors want, 
that explains this map's popularity.

-- 
Zev Sero            “Were we directed from Washington when to sow
zev at sero.name       and when to reap, we should soon want bread.”
		    –Thomas Jefferson: Autobiography, 1821.