QUESTION: Qedem means “in front”. Picture someone facing east (if you need to get ORIENTed). Qedem is east, teiman is on his yemin (right). Similarly, qedem is the past and achor, the future, if behind you. After all, you can see the past, but not the future. (In English, it’s “before” and “after” that use the metaphor of the future being behind the present.)
When Tanakh wants to refer to the east by calling it the place where the sun rises, the word is mizrach (מזרח). And it shares the leading mem as maarav (מערב), where the sun is when it is erev (ערב).
The shoresh of מוקד is \יקד\, not \קדמ\. As in Vayiqra 6:6, “אש תמיד תוקד על המזבח”.
Micha Berger