The Root of מדורה - Medora - Bonfire
In the spirit of this holiday, I'd like to discuss the word מדורה - medora - bonfire, and its origin. The root of the word מדורה is ד-ו-ר. The word דור (dor or dur), from which the word כדור - kadur - ball also originates, means circle, a line that encircles; "דור הולך ודור בא" - "dor holech ve'dor ba" - "a generation comes and a generation goes", because the generation recurs like a cycle, and in Arabic, "dur" means "turned"
. Prehistoric man built round accommodations, the דירה-dira-apartment and דיר-dir-pen (only "square" people built in straight lines as there are no straight lines in nature. The word מדור-mador is an Aramaic word that means housing, and it is used these days in מדורי הכלכלה והספורט - The Sports and Economy Column, and the verb למדר - lemader. Even the word דואר-do'ar-post office is rooted in this word as the דוור-davar-postman walks in circles when he does his "rounds". "עושה אדם מדורה ומתחמם כנגדה" - "man makes fire and is warmed by it" (Talmud).
That is why when a school principle walks around the school, it is called "mudir" in Arabic from the root ד-ו-ר, and the phrase "dir balak" in Arabic basically means "turn your attention".
How has this word developed?
How has this word developed? In Ezekiel 24, it is written: "and pile the bones underneath bring it to a rolling boil until all is cooked, even the bones". The verb דור means to "light a fire", therefore the point of origin of the fire is called מדורה. As is written in Isaiah 30: "made large and deep with plenty of wood and blazing with fire". Perhaps the word for bonfire with the root דור has united because of the trees added to it in order to feed the fire, and because companions sit around the fire like the "doara", a dreidel in Arabic and like a round ball. On Lag B'Omer, it is allowed to add שמן למדורה-fuel to the fire, a phrase used to describe making a situation worse by interfering.
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