Beha'alotcha- Directionality and Proprioception

"Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying, 'Speak to Aaron and say to him: When you kindle the lamps, toward the face of the Menorah shall the seven lamps cast light.'" ~Bamidbar 8;1-2

Rashi on 8;2 says:
Toward the face of the menorah. This means toward the middle lamp, which is called "the Menorah" because it is not on the branches, but rather, on the body of the Menorah, i.e., on its central shaft.
Shall the seven lamps cast light. Of the six lamps that are on the six branches, the three of them on the east, the wicks in them turn toward the middle [lamp], and similarly, the three of them on the west, the ends of their wicks turn toward the middle [lamp]. Why? So that [people] should not say "He needs its light."

proprioception- the unconscious perception of movement and spatial orientation arising from stimuli within the body itself (dictionary.com)

Direction or orientation is a concept that develops over time. Understanding of directions like up and down develops early on in children- often before children are even toddlers; babies demand "Up!" when they want to be picked up or "Down!" when they want to be let down to play with or reach something. Understanding of forward and backward also develops by a young age. Proficient use of left and right takes much longer to develop and remains difficult for many people even into adulthood. The understanding of left and right is part of proprioception. This is different from up, down, front, back, etc., which are based on a person's understanding of the outside world in relation to themselves, rather than the understanding of one part of their body in relation to another part.

Parsha Connection:
When reading the portion that tells about Aaron lighting the menorah, it struck me that the Torah doesn't give specific direction; rather, it says that the lamps should be lit "toward the face of the Menorah". Interestingly, Rashi's explanation also refers to the lights using external directions- i.e. east and west. While east and west might also be confusing, since you first need to orient yourself in relation to the cardinal directions (North, South, East, West), once you identify one direction, it's easier to figure out where the other directions are in relation to your orienting direction. Left and right would have been much harder to figure out or understand, since left and right are always based on the relationship of the specific person or the object being referred to. For example, if the Torah (or Rashi) mentioned the wicks on the left compared to the wicks on the right, how would we know if it was referring to them based on the perspective of the person lighting or the perspective of the Menorah itself?

Everyday Connection:
Differentiating left from right is always difficult. Practicing referring to the left and right of someone else is even more difficult. Putting left and right labels and then turning around in different directions to see where the left and right end up can start to help children develop an understanding of how left and right move around as an object changes location. For example, if you're talking about your right or left and a child's right or left, when you're facing each other it's very hard for a child to understand why your left and their left are diagonally across from each other. Turning to face the same direction, identifying your left hand with a label or by raising it up and then turning around while keeping it raised can help the child actually see how your left changes its location as you turn around.

One trick that many people use to remember left from right is to put their index fingers and thumbs on each hand into an "L" shape. With the back of your hand facing you, your left hand will make a proper "L", while your right hand will make a backwards "L".

Interesting note- when dealing with stage directions, to avoid confusion the director always refers to directions from the perspective of the actors standing on stage and facing the audience. This means that the director (when facing the stage) actually needs to reverse all of their innate directions in order for the actors to understand in which direction they need to move.