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b-hebrew - doven-ing, another Just-So-Story by izzy (humor)

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  • From: "Cohen, Izzy" <Izzy_Cohen AT bmc.com>
  • To: hebraisticum AT mail.uni-mainz.de, jewish-languages AT lists.Stanford.EDU, hebrew-t AT tc.umn.edu, b-hebrew AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu, heblang AT shamash.org
  • Cc: linguistics AT yahoogroups.com
  • Subject: doven-ing, another Just-So-Story by izzy (humor)
  • Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 08:00:03 -0600


DoVeN-ing
=========
An essential element of [Yinglish] DoVeN-ing =
"(congregational) praying" is the requirement
to face in the direction of Jerusalem.

The nave of older Western churches usually was
oriented towards Jerusalem. Compare navigate.

Random House online contains:

orient
9. to place so as to face the east, esp. to build
(a church) with the chief altar to the east and
the chief entrance to the west.

Likewise, Muslims face Mecca when praying.

Bear with me and I'll try to explain the connection
between DoVeN-ing and facing the right direction.

The two stars that form the pouring edge of the bowl of
the Big Dipper [Ursa Major = big bear] point to ...

Polaris
1. the polestar or North Star ... in the constellation
Ursa Minor [Little Bear]: the outermost star in the
handle of the Little Dipper.

This explains why, in English, the process of determining
the direction you face is called "getting one's bearings".

bearings
9. a horizontal direction expressed in degrees east
or west of ... north ...

The Hebrew word for bear is DoV.
Hence, DoVen-ing.

izzy, the tail-bearer
izzy_cohen AT bmc.com












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