Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld
A certain rabbi I know phoned me up the other day with a rather random request.
He asked to borrow my compass.
He explained that he's building a shul and wants to check the engineer's measurements to make sure it's facing the right direction.
Here's what I asked him, which is an interesting question for your table: What's the right direction?
Most people instinctively say, "East".
Presumably because we want to face Israel which is supposedly in the East. But if you look at a globe, you'll see that depending on where you are in North America or Europe, Israel may be much reasonably more toward the northeast or or southeast or even in the case of Alaska probably due North.
In Baltimore, there are two shuls across the street from each other on Park Heights Avenue where they made contradictory decisions: one faces northeast and the other faces southeast.
Moreover, a compass doesn't actually point north. It points to Magnetic North, which is located in NE Canada.
Now, online maps are more accurate than a compass, but that doesn't solve the first problem of deciding which way you should face your shul to begin with.
And I suggested a further problem: if the intent of facing Israel is to know that you're facing Israel, how does it help to make sure your shul is "precisely" facing Israel (whatever that means) if the people attending don't understand that precision?
For your table: If you were building a shul in your town, which way would you build it?
Bonus question: Does a moral compass work in the same way? Does it come down to a judgment call?
Shabbat Shalom
He asked to borrow my compass.
He explained that he's building a shul and wants to check the engineer's measurements to make sure it's facing the right direction.
Here's what I asked him, which is an interesting question for your table: What's the right direction?
Most people instinctively say, "East".
Presumably because we want to face Israel which is supposedly in the East. But if you look at a globe, you'll see that depending on where you are in North America or Europe, Israel may be much reasonably more toward the northeast or or southeast or even in the case of Alaska probably due North.
In Baltimore, there are two shuls across the street from each other on Park Heights Avenue where they made contradictory decisions: one faces northeast and the other faces southeast.
Moreover, a compass doesn't actually point north. It points to Magnetic North, which is located in NE Canada.
Now, online maps are more accurate than a compass, but that doesn't solve the first problem of deciding which way you should face your shul to begin with.
And I suggested a further problem: if the intent of facing Israel is to know that you're facing Israel, how does it help to make sure your shul is "precisely" facing Israel (whatever that means) if the people attending don't understand that precision?
For your table: If you were building a shul in your town, which way would you build it?
Bonus question: Does a moral compass work in the same way? Does it come down to a judgment call?
Shabbat Shalom
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