Shemot 27:9-19 records the instructions to build the courtyard of the mishkan. The mishkan consisted of three areas or zones, the courtyard, the mishkan proper and the Holy of Holies. The largest zone was the courtyard, with the northern and southern sides being 100 amot (a foot and a half?) by 50 amot, while the eastern and western sides were both 50 amot, 27:9-19. These dimensions meant that the mishkan was a rectangle, and this same shape also appears by the second zone, the mishkan proper, which was situated within the courtyard. The mishkan proper was 30 amot by 10 amot, and again the northern and southern sides were the lengthier sides, 26:15-25. The mishkan proper was divided into two rooms, 26:31-35, with the western part of the room being the Holy of Holies, and this is assumed to have been a perfect cube, 10 amot by 10 amot by 10 amot.
In addition, both the courtyard and the mishkan proper were set up on an east west axis, as both entrances to the courtyard and the mishkan proper were on the eastern sides, and a worshipper moved towards the west when entering the respective zones. There seems to be no geographic need for this choice of direction, and the question is whether there is any significance to the fact that one would face west when entering the mishkan. Note the mishkan could have been built as a circle with no directional bias, but my guess is that this was technically more difficult.
Rambam (1963, Guide, 3:45) writes with regard to the Bet ha-Mikdash that, “Avraham defined the direction towards which one would turn in prayer, fixing it exactly in the west. For the Holy of Holies is in the west… In my opinion, the reason for this is as follows: inasmuch as at that time the opinion generally accepted in the world was to the effect that the sun should be worshipped, and that it is the deity, there is no doubt that all men turned when praying towards the east. Therefore, Avraham turned when praying on Mount Moriah – I mean in the Sanctuary – towards the west, so as to turn his back upon the sun.” While I do not know this reference to Avraham, and the Rambam is referring to the Bet ha-Mikdash, still this same principle should apply to the mishkan. The mishkan could not face east since that could imply that people were worshipping the sun. It is true that the sun sets in the west, but then the sun is waning.
This same dichotomy of east versus west appears in the book of Bereshit. After Adam and Havva were thrown out of the Garden of Eden, the Torah records that the garden was guarded on the east by the keruvim, which meant that the opening of the Garden of Eden was also in the east, Bereshit 3:24, also Bereshit 2:8?. Also, traveling east in the book of Bereshit is a bad sign, as by the episode of the Tower of Bavel, the people traveled east, Bereshit 11:2, when Lot left the land of Israel, the Torah records that he traveled to the east, Bereshit 13:11, and Avraham sent his sons from the concubines to the east, Bereshit 25:6. Conversely traveling west is viewed favorably, as Abraham and Yaakov entered the land of Israel from the east which meant that they were traveling westwards, and the Jewish people in the desert, circled the desert to enter the land of Israel from the east. Could it be that this preference towards traveling west was also part of the fight against the worship of the sun?
Yet, would the westward alignment of the mishkan really negate the worship of the sun? Many pagan temples were built that the sun’s first rays would strike a particular mark on certain special days, and hence with the openings of the mishkan in the east, this could still allow for the sun’s rays to enter the mishkan. The answer here is that while one entered from the east side of the mishkan, there really was no real opening for sunlight. Both the eastern side of the courtyard and of the mishkan proper had screens that covered the entire side and were ten amot high, which meant that the sun’s early rays could not directly enter the mishkan without passing through the curtains. Furthermore, in the mishkan proper, there were coverings both on the top and on the sides which probably precluded almost all sunlight from entering the mishkan proper, as almost certainly, the Holy of Holies was a dark room, 26:1-14.
If the goal was to limit direct sunlight in the mishkan, why then was the mishkan not built on a north south axis? One possible answer is from the Rambam that the objective was for people to turn their backs on the sun. A second possibility is that the north was also considered sacred by some pagan religions, as for example the German and Norse societies worshipped the North Star. Furthermore, it seems that pagans in the southern hemisphere treated the south as being sacred since at midnight the South Pole Star aligned with the sun.
Accordingly, maybe the westward alignment of the mishkan was chosen to exclude any possible pagan influences on the mishkan. The eastwards direction was disqualified due to the worship of the rising sun, while the north and south axis was rejected due to pagan worship of the stars. The only remaining direction was for the mishkan to face west since this direction was not associated with any pagan religions.
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