What’s in a Word?

nature

compass directions

ים · מערב · אחרון · מזרח · קדם · פנים

Bottom line

Each direction has three Hebrew names, and each name says why: east is mizrach (where the sun shines out), kedem (the sun's first, forward position), or panim (facewards); west is yam (seaward, toward the Mediterranean), maarav (where shadows blur), or acharon (the sun's last place); north is tzafon (hidden from the sun), smol (left), or the Aramaic estan; south is darom (the sun's daytime path), negev (the dry country), or teiman/yamin (right). Render all of them by the compass point in the body, and only unpack the sense where the passage or a derashah leans on it. Bereishis 28:14 pairs yam, kedem, tzafon, negev; Devarim 3:27 pairs yam, tzafon, mizrach, teiman. The column's own answer to why the doublets exist: the several names each fix on a different aspect of the same direction, and are generally based either on the movements of the sun or on certain topographical features of Eretz Yisrael.

Distinctions

East: mizrach (מזרח), kedem (קדם), panim (פנים)

Mizrach is from zarach, to shine: the quarter the sun first shines from. Kedem is from kodem, early or forward, and points to the fact that the rising sun first shines from the east. Panim, literally "facewards," because when Adam was created the front of his body faced eastward, which makes east the default frame of reference for the whole system (see the north and south entries below).

West: yam (ים), maarav (מערב), acharon (אחרון)

Rabbeinu Bachaya explains that yam literally means sea, and serves for west because the Mediterranean lies at the west side of Eretz Yisrael, so the word is local, not absolute. The west is also called maarav, from me'urav, mixed: as the sun sets, the shapes of the shadows become mixed up. Thirdly, acharon, literally "last," because it is the last place along the horizon where the sun is found before setting in the evening.

North: tzafon (צפון), smol (שמאל), estan (אסתן)

The commentators offer several explanations of tzafon, and the column leaves them all standing. Some compare it to tzafun, hidden, because in the northern parts of the world (the Arctic zone) the sun's influence is hidden, the cold there obscuring its warmth; or, alternatively, because the sun generally remains south of the celestial equator, so the north side is "hidden" from the sun's presence. Others claim it is related to tzifiyah, gazing, since one can fix north by gazing heavenward and following the northern star. Another approach argues that tzafon refers to Mount Tzafon, a mountain mentioned in Tanach which lies due north of Eretz Yisrael and which the column reports is identified by scholars as Jebel Aqra, on the border between modern-day Turkey and Syria. Smol, left, follows from facing east. The Gemara sometimes uses the Aramaic estan for north (e.g. Kesubos 23a); Rabbeinu Bachaya (1255-1340) proposes that it may be related to the Aramaic asuta, health, alluding to the healing properties of the north wind (see Yevamos 72a). Some people accordingly have a custom of exclaiming Asuta! on hearing another sneeze, to bless him with good health.

South: darom (דרום), negev (נגב), teiman (תימן) / yamin (ימין)

The commentaries explain darom as a portmanteau of derech yom, the path of the day, because the sun generally remains in the southern hemisphere of the celestial map during the day. Negev is literally "dry," because the southern part of Eretz Yisrael is a dry and arid desert-land, so like yam it is a name taken from the land itself. Teiman and yamin are "right," again from an east-facing stance. The column closes with a geographical anomaly: the Hebrew words for left and right turn up in place-names near the Gulf of Aden between Africa and Arabia, so that one travelling northwards there approaches Yemen (related to yemin) on his right and Somalia (related to smol) on his left.

Rendering guidance

  • In ordinary narrative render the compass point: tzafon north, negev south, kedem east, yam west. Do not translate yam as "sea" in a direction list or negev as "the Negev" where the pasuk means south.
  • Where a passage plays on the sense, gloss once and move on: tzafon as the hidden side, negev as the dry country, kedem as the forward side.
  • Trap: English "east" absorbs mizrach, kedem and panim, and "south" absorbs darom, negev and teiman. When two of them stand in one pasuk, or when a source contrasts kedem with mizrach, keep them apart by glossing the second: "east (kedem, the forward side)."
  • Second trap (ours, not the column's): kedem carries both space and time. Check whether the pasuk means eastward or aforetime before settling on either.
  • Smol and yamin are only north and south when the speaker faces east. Where the orientation is a person's own body, they stay left and right.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Looking Four Directions," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 3 Kislev 5777 (2016-12-03): https://articles.ohr.edu/articles/looking-four-directions, raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/7029-looking-four-directions.md. Primary loci cited: Bereishis 28:14 (yam, kedem, tzafon, negev); Devarim 3:27 (yam, tzafon, mizrach, teiman); Rabbeinu Bachaya on the direction words; Kesubos 23a (estan); Yevamos 72a (the healing north wind). The column's report that scholars identify Mount Tzafon as Jebel Aqra, and its closing note on Yemen and Somalia, are given here as it gives them.