"But Hashem became angry with me because of you, and He did not listen to me; Hashem said to me, 'It is much for you! Do not continue to speak to Me further about this matter. Ascend to the top of the cliff and raise your eyes westward, northward, southward, and eastward, and see with your eyes, for you shall not cross this Jordan. And command Joshua, and strengthen him and give him resolve, for he shall cross before this people and he shall cause them to inherit the land that you will see.' And we stayed in the valley, opposite Beth-peor." ~Devarim 3:26-28
In this section of this week's parsha, we have Moshe retelling the Children of Israel about how he begged Hashem to let him join them when they entered the land of Israel, and Hashem's response to his request. He confirms that he is not allowed to enter the land, but he is told to go up to the top of the cliff and look around in all directions- West, North, South, East- to see the land that will be given.
Last year, in Parshat Behaalotcha, I wrote about the difficulties that children have in making sense of right and left and how the use of right and left is specifically confusing when trying to assign it to different people or objects- my left, your right, to the left of the desk, etc. An overlay to that understanding is the concept of cardinal directions, which is used here (and in many other descriptive sections of the Torah).
Cardinal directions are north, south, east, and west. While these are classically a geographically linked concept, they tie into students understanding of direction, and therefore expand beyond just the basic map-reading skills and fall into spatial understanding and reasoning, which promotes their understanding of geometry and spatial awareness.
The biggest aspect for students to explore is based on the idea that the descriptions of left and right change based on a person's orientation. For example, when a stand here, the window is on my left, but when I turn, now the door is on my left. However, with cardinal directions, they maintain their location and description no matter how you move around. If the window is on the north side of the room, and the door on the east side, they will remain on the north side and the east side, respectively, no matter which way I turn around.
Students can also rely on the fact that once they remember the relationship of the directions to each other, then as long as they can definitively identify the location of one direction, they can figure out the remaining directions. In other words, if I know that my window is north, and I need to figure out the direction of my door, if, when I face my window the door is 90 degrees on the right, then I know that my door is to the east.
As students advance, they can extend their knowledge throughout a building. So, if I give my students a mock blueprint of a school, and I tell them that the chalkboard in the 2nd grade classroom is on the northeast side of the building, they should be able to use that information to determine the cardinal location of any other item on the floor, or even in the entire building, that I ask them to locate. Going another step beyond, rather than just lining up blueprints or maps in front of them, can they use identifying markers to physically move through the building, or school campus, or beyond and identify the cardinal directions of specific requested items?
While knowing left from right is a critical skill for life, knowing cardinal directions is an even greater skill, since the cardinal directions allow for greater extrapolation of the relationship of the space that you're moving in.
Extension Thought:
Visually, students can make a connection between the directions on the compass and a coordinate plane. Imagine:
- The N-S line = y-axis
- The W-E line = x-axis
- Center point of the compass = the origin or (0, 0)
- NE = the 45 degree split of the (+, +) Quadrant I
- NW = the 45 degree split of the (-, +) Quadrant II
- SW = the 45 degree split of the (-, -) Quadrant III
- SE = the 45 degree split of the (+, -) Quadrant IV
Conceptually speaking, these may not have a strong connection to each other, but connecting information in different ways can make a big difference in the way that students make sense of, understand, and internalize disparate information to create meaningful and useful practical applications of the information for themselves. This is why we teach, use, and create mnemonic devices for ourselves when trying to remember information.
"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.
