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R. Shlomo Yosef Zevin and Yeshiva Students Being Drafted to the Army, Views of Women, and More

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R. Shlomo Yosef Zevin and Yeshiva Students Being Drafted to the Army, Views of Women, and More Which Direction is North?, Geographical Mistakes, and our Woke Universities Which Direction is North?, Geographical Mistakes, and our Woke Universities Marc B. Shapiro 1. Numbers 34:15 states: “Two and a half tribes have taken their inheritance on the side of the Jordan by Jericho, to the front, eastward.” Rashi comments: קדמה מזרחה: אל פני העולם שהם במזרח, שרוח מזרחית קרויה פנים ומערביות קרויה אחור לפיכך דרום לימין וצפון לשמאל This passage is translated as follows in ArtScroll’s Sapirstein edition: To the Front, Eastward: This means to the front of the world, which is in the east, for the eastern direction is called “face” and the western direction is called “back.” This is why the south is to the right and the north is to the left. What does the “front of the world” mean? Furthermore, how could Rashi say that south is to the right? Anyone who looks at a map can see that south is not to the right and north is not to the left. Rather east is to the right and west is to the left. ArtScroll begins its explanation by referring to Psalms צָפוֹן וְיָמִין אַתָּה בְרָאתָם :89:13 “The north and the south [right], Thou hast created them.” What we see from this verse is that “right” is used synonymously with “south”, which means that “north” also signifies “left”. But what does this mean, that “south” is “right” and “north” is “left”? אִם–הַשְּׂמֹאל וְאֵימִנָה:See also Genesis 13:9 וְאִם–הַיָּמִין וְאַשְׂמְאִילָה אם את לצפונא אנא לדרומא:Onkelos and Ps.-Jonathan translate ואם את לדרומא אנא לצפונה As you can see, the Targumim also understand “right” to mean south and “left” to mean north. וַיִּרְדְּפֵם עַד–חוֹבָה אֲשֶׁר:Genesis 14:15 states מִשְּׂמֹאל לְדַמָּשֶׂק Old JPS translates: “[He] pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.” But this is incorrect. The here means “to the north”, and this is how it משמאל word appears in the new JPS (and also in ArtScroll). See also Ezekiel 16:46 where again the words “right” and “left” refer to south and north.[1] In its commentary to Rashi, Numbers 34:15, ArtScroll provides examples of other places where Rashi explains “south” to mean וְהַכְּרֻבִים:right”. For example, Ezekiel 10:3 states“ Now the cherubim“ .עֹמְדִים מִימִין לַבַּיִת בְּבֹאוֹ הָאִישׁ stood on the right side of the house, when the man went in.” Rashi comments: מימין לבית: בדרום “On the right side of the house: In the south [of the Temple].” ArtScroll does not mention Rashi, Genesis 35:18, where he ,as meaning “of the south”, that is בנימין explains the name the only son who was born in the south. Returning to Rashi’s comment in Numbers 34:15, where he says that south is to the right and north is to the left, ArtScroll explains as follows: “When one faces east, his right is to the south, his left is to the north, and his back is to the west.” This explanation is earlier found in the Silbermann translation of Rashi, Exodus, p. 261: “In reality these terms describe the points of the compass relative to one who is ,the right ,ימין so that ( )מזרח facing the place of sun-rise the left, is the North.” Neither , שמאלis the South and ArtScroll nor Silbermann mention that this explanation is already found in Nahmanides, Exodus 26:18. Now let us look at two passages in Maimonides. InMishneh Torah, Hilkhot Terumot 1:9, Maimonides states: איזו היא סוריה? מארץ ישראל ולמטה כנגד ארם נהריים וארם צובה כל יד פרת עד בבל כגון דמשק ואחלב וחרן ומגבת וכיוצא בהן עד שנער וצהר הרי היא כסוריה What constitutes Syria? From Eretz Yisrael and below parallel to Aram Naharaim and Aram Tzovah, the entire region of the Euphrates until Babylonia, e.g., Damascus, Achalev, Charan, Minbag, and the like until Shinar and Tzahar. These are considered like Syria. I have underlined the problematic word. How can Maimonides say that Aram Naharaim etc. are below the Land of Israel? As R. Mordechai Emanuel notes, the Rambam is placing Damascus south of the Land of Israel which is clearly mistaken.[2] Here is the map, and if we inserted all the places places Maimonides mentions we would find them north of Israel. R. Isaac Klein writes as follows in his translation in the Yale Judaica Series (p. 436): “Outward” – literally “below.” The term is due to the belief that the Land of Israel was situated higher than all other lands, hence all other countries were considered below it. In modern Hebrew he who immigrates into Israel is termed oleh, “he who has ascended,” while he who leaves Israel is called yored, “he who has descended.” The Touger edition of the Mishneh Torah comments: The term “below” in this context is problematic. It does not mean “south,” because significant portions of Syria are more northerly than Eretz Yisrael. Some commentaries understand it as meaning in height, because as Kiddushin 69b states, Eretz Yisrael is higher than other lands. Rambam le-Am states that the word “below” should be understood as meaning “outside of”, which is how Klein also translated the passage: כלומר, מחוצה לה, וכתב “למטה” לפי שארץ ישראל גבוהה מכל הארצות – קידושין סט: Yet this doesn’t make much sense. Maimonides is giving the cannot possibly מארץ ישראל ולמטהborders of Syria so saying mean “outside Eretz Yisrael”. The fact that Eretz Yisrael is higher than the surrounding lands is also not relevant. In other words, the three editions of the Mishneh Torah we have just mentioned don’t have a clue as to why Maimonides when anyone looking at a map would conclude that ,למטה writes .למעלה he should have written The same problem can be seen inHilkhot Kiddush ha- Hodesh 11:17 where Maimonides states that Jerusalem is found below the equator. מתחת הקו השוה המסבב באמצע העולם Both Solomon Gandz in the Yale Judaica Series and the Touger edition translate this as “north of the equator” without can mean north. Again, anyone can look at מתחת explaining how a map and see that Jerusalem is above the equator, so what is going on here? The answer to the questions I have asked is that maps in the Islamic world were generally oriented with south at the top. I Aתcan do no better than cite Jerry Brotton’s wonderful book History of the World in Twelve Maps (London, 2012), pp. 58-59: Most of the communities who converted to Islam in its early phase of rapid international expansion in the seventh and eighth centuries lived directly north of Mecca, leading them to regard the qibla as due south. As a result, most Muslim world maps, including al-Idrisi’s, were oriented with south at the top. This also neatly established continuity with the tradition of the recently conquered Zoroastrian communities in Persia, which regarded south as sacred. This orientation would have appeared on the maps that Maimonides was familiar with, and thus it makes sense for him to describe Aram Naharaim, etc. as below Israel, or Jerusalem as below the equator, as that is what he saw when he looked at a map.[3] Here is an example of such a map by the famed twelfth-century cartographer Muhammad al-Idrisi. This map is known as Tabula Rogeriana as it was made for King Roger II of Sicily.[4] As you can see, Saudi Arabia is on top. Here is a twentieth- century map which also puts south on the top.[5] We have other examples of maps in Jewish sources that show the directions differently than what we are used to. For example, here is Gittin 7b and the maps in Rashi show west on top. We also have maps in medieval manuscripts of Rashi’s commentaries that show east on top, as well as north on top.[6] Here is Maharsha, Gittin 7b, which shows west on top. Below this you can see the map in R. Meir of Lublin’s commentary that has east on top. Here is Maharsha, Berakhot 61b, and east is on top. Here is a page from R. Jonathan ben Joseph’sYeshuah be- Yisrael, a 1720 commentary on Maimonides’ Hilkhot Kiddush ha- Hodesh (ch. 10), and you can see again that east is on top. Many people probably assume that what we have seen are printers’ mistakes, but that is not the case. European cartographers regularly put east on top, as Jerusalem was in the east relative to Europe, and the top was often regarded as the most important place on a map.[7] We also have examples from Europe with the west on top, although this is much rarer.[8] The important point is that our current maps that have north on top are not any more correct than these other maps. It is simply a matter of convention which direction should be on top, and interested readers are referred to Brotton’s book mentioned already. As we have been discussing maps, here are some examples of what appear to be geographical mistakes in rabbinic literature, in no particular order. (In a future post I will deal with rabbinic views about whether the earth is round or flat, and why they thought there was no human habitation in the southern hemisphere.) ,עד נהר .and Kiddushin 71b s.v ,סהדא Rashi, Shabbat 65b, s.v states that the Euphrates flows from the Land of Israel to Babylonia.[9] The Talmud, Shabbat 65b, quotes Rav that when the water rises in the Euphrates this is a sign that there has been rain in the Holy Land.[10] I believe the simple explanation of this passage, contrary to Rashi, is that there was an assumption that if there was significant rain in Babylonia then there was also rain in Eretz Yisrael.
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