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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>From: Zev Sero via Avodah <avodah@lists.aishdas.org><BR>>
first not everyone agrees with the psak of R Karelitz. Among the reasons<BR>>
are precisely that perhaps tumah does not really go on "forever". In<BR>>
addition to questions about the moon how about accounting for the<BR>>
curvature of the earth? [--RET]<BR><BR>What about it? How is it
relevant? at any given point in the <BR>universe, you are either
above a grave or you are not.<BR><BR><BR><BR>-- <BR>Zev
Sero <BR></FONT></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV>>>>>></DIV>
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<DIV>At any given point in the universe, what do the words "above" and "below"
even /mean/?</DIV>
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<DIV>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. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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"?</DIV>
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<DIV>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.</DIV>
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<DIV>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!</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff></FONT><BR><FONT color=#0000ff><STRONG>--Toby
Katz<BR>t613k@aol.com</STRONG></FONT><FONT lang=0 color=#ffffff size=2
face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><BR><STRONG>..</STRONG></FONT><FONT
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PTSIZE="10"><BR><STRONG>=============</STRONG><BR><BR><BR>-------------------------------------------------------------------</FONT></DIV>
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