Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 40:4 turns a floor plan into a theology. Moshe is instructed to place the table of showbread on the north side of the sanctuary and the menorah on the south. The meturgeman refuses to leave the directions unexplained.
North is where wealth falls
The table goes on the north, the targumist says, because from thence are given riches; for from thence distil the drops of the latter rain upon the herbs, for the food of the inhabiters of the world. North, in the meturgeman's cosmology, is the direction of rainfall and of the harvest it produces. Set the table there, and you align the sanctuary's bread with the source of all bread. Twelve loaves — two rows of six, one for each tribe of Jacob — rested on that table as a weekly reminder that every harvest is a gift from the skies.
South is where wisdom rises
The menorah goes on the south, because there are the paths of the sun and of the moon, and the pathways of the luminaries; and thence are the treasures of the wisdom which resembleth the light. South is the route of the celestial travelers. South is where light climbs highest. Set the lamps there, and the sanctuary's flame is aligned with the wisdom that shines from above.
The meturgeman goes further. The seven lamps, he says, correspond to the seven stars which resemble the just, who shine unto eternity in their righteousness. The lamps are not only astronomy. They are biography. Every lamp is a righteous soul whose light does not go out.
A sanctuary laid out like the cosmos
Bread to the north, light to the south. Rain and harvest on one side; sun, moon, and wisdom on the other. The Mishkan was not arranged for architectural symmetry. It was arranged to teach a child who walked in where food comes from and where wisdom comes from. A sanctuary is a classroom for the cosmos, and every direction points toward a gift.
The takeaway: the God of Israel does not place objects randomly. Bread goes where rain falls. Light goes where light comes from. Holiness follows the grain of creation.