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mezereh
מזרה
'mezereh' means “east”. In 25% of instances, the rising sun is mentioned, giving very strong contextual evidence to this interpretation.
Intriguingly, the etymological root word appears to be based around “stars” (mezel) rather than the sun, suggesting the possibility that the yeberim possessed a very accurate astronomical concept rooting the earth's (arex) position against the background cosmos rather than a solar-centric view. However, since technically, the sun, our closest star, is also included within the definition of mezel, this does not rule out a solar-centric view.
The Direction Of the Ancients
An intriguing phrase that arises with some regularity within the texts is ' pat qedem mezereh'. The literal translation of this phrase is “the ancient civilization in the East”. This phrase is used to distinguish a particular side of the meseken (tabernacle)1). It also is used more generally to describe geographical positioning2).