[Avodah] Davening direction

[Akiva Miller]

.
R' Eli Turkel wrote:

> Instinctively it seems silly to me davening north east towards
> Jerusalem even though that is the direction a plane would fly

Don't rely on your imagination. Get practical. Find a globe and put it in
your hands. Take a look at New York, and take a look at Eretz Yisrael.
Without knowing anything about geometry or air travel, draw a line with
your finger from NY to EY.

Please note that I have actually done this experiment with my
grandchildren, and invariably their finger goes northeast along the North
American coastline, and then southeast through Europe, without any
smart-guy analysis.

It's all about "How do I get there? Am I facing Eretz Yisrael, or not? The
direction I am facing, is EY straight ahead or isn't it?"

RET continued:

> Gut feeling is that south east is reasonable even that is based on a flat
earth

To me, *south east* is not at all reasonable. If you leave NY and head
southeast, you'll miss the Middle East entirely, and you'll even miss
Africa. I think you'll end up off the coast of Brazil.

Or rather, it had never *before* been reasonable in my eyes, but then R'
Micha Berger explained it. After all, whether your map is Mercator or not,
it is a very simple matter to know that EY is south of NY, and EY is east
of NY. Therefore, EY is southeast of NY, as R' Micha explained so very
simply:

> (Queue up my bit about halakhahh being about reality as percieved,
> not objective reality. Play it in your head -- I'm sure the
> majority of you know it by heart by now, now continue reading...)

Touche, sir. I needed very much to hear that. I have applied it to many
other situations - and now to this as well. I just need to keep on
repeating it until it becomes more instinctual.

On a related matter, it seems to me (from his first post) that RET presumes
the correct direction is "towards Jerusalem". This is slightly inaccurate;
the actual correct direction is "towards Eretz Yisrael". I concede that the
two are virtually identical for those in the US, but there are other
locations where this distinction is important. For my proof, I will begin
by quoting Orach Chayim 94:1-

[begin quote]
When one gets up to daven, if he was standing in Chutz Laaretz, he should
turn his face towards Eretz Yisrael, and have kavana also for Yerushalayim
and the Mikdash and the Kodesh Kadashim.
If he was standing in Eretz Yisrael, he should turn his face towards
Yerushalayim, and have kavana also for the Mikdash and the Kodesh Kadashim.
If he was standing in Yerushalayim, he should turn his face towards the
Mikdash, and have kavana also for the Kodesh Kadashim...
[end quote]

Now, how is this applied in actual practice at the Kotel? The people are
standing in Yerushalayim, and the Shulchan Aruch instructs them to face the
*Mikdash*, and *not* to face the Kodesh Hakadashim. And what do we see Klal
Yisrael doing instinctively? They face the Mikdash (i.e., Har Habayis)
directly, perpendicular to the Kotel. If anyone at the Kotel would choose
to face the Kodesh Hakadashim, this would require them to turn to the left,
at a noticeable angle of about 45 degrees, and I don't recall ever seeing
anyone do that.

The same, I presume, would apply if someone were in a location in Chutz
Laaretz, but close to the border of Eretz Yisrael, and the closest part of
EY was in a different direction than Yerushalayim.

It is true that this point will rarely - if ever - yield a practical
difference in the direction one faces for davening. But there is a very
important mussar lesson here: Don't bite off too much. Whatever level you
are on, aim to go ONE level higher at a time. When you get there, THEN you
can go one level further.

Akiva Miller
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