[Avodah] Compass directions

[Zev Sero]

On 12/3/23 16:38, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
> 
> My question is why the Torah would use an extra word, apparently for no 
> reason. Is there some need for emphasis in this context? I  doubt it 
> would be to eliminate confusion; they're building the Mishkan locally, 
> not in the Negev, so it obviously means "south", right?

But they were building the Mishkan *south* of the Negev.  So if you were 
to take "negba" literally it would mean *north*.  Just as if we in 
America were to take "yama" literally as "towards the Mediterranean Sea" 
it would mean "east".  Perhaps that's why it needs to emphasize that it 
means south regardless of the Negev's actual location.  And once it's 
made that point several times, it can go back to just using "negba" and 
we will understand it, especially if it's directly contrasted with 
"tzafona", as it is in the pasuk you cited (40:24).


-- 
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.