Four Are the Mothers

Pesach has an integral connection to the number four. The gematria ketanah (adding numerical equivalents of letters to get a single digit number,) of the word Pesach is four. We drink four cups corresponding to four sentences of redemption. We address four sons. We sing about the four mothers.

What is the significance of the number four in relation to Pesach?

The pasuk says: Shma beni mussar avicha ve’al titosh Toras imecha (Mishlei 1: 8). The Torah comes through the mother, because it is the nurturing of the mother that, more than anything, imbues one of Torah values.

The letter dalet has the numerical value of four. Dalet means (and looks like a) door and door refers to the home. We know that the Jews in Egypt were to put blood on their doorposts, to allay the angel of death. We also know that it was in the zchus of the noshim tzidkanios (righteous women,) that we were redeemed.

The Jewish home is the medium of Torah continuity. The home is set up as a mitzvah from Hashem and this home is the model of Jewish observance, be it Torah learning, Shabbos, yom Tov, kashrus etc. Almost all Jewish practice, is enacted in the home.

Therefore we say at a bris milah, leTorah, lechupah ulemaasim tovim – to Torah, to chupah and to good deeds. It is only after the fulfilment of chupah that one has the ultimate opportunity to fulfil practicing good deeds - in the home. Therefore the four-sided chupah that represents the couple living together in a home.

Home

We are called Beis Yisroel (the House of Israel,) as it is through us that the Shechinah (Hashem’s presence) dwells in this world and particularly in the Beis Hamikdash the home of Shechinah. The home is typically two things. It is a protection from the outside and a miniature-world.

In as much as the Jewish people are meant to be the model of humanity to the world, the Jewish home is meant to be the model of a perfect world. It is made up of disparate individuals working together for a common goal in harmony, under the Wings of the Shechinah.

It is in this environment that a child is imbued with Torah values and the direction and desire to follow Hashem and His Torah and thus, reach his or her fulfilment and purpose in life.

We know the ultimate redemption will be to gather the Jews from the four corners of the world. We can see why the exodus from Mitzrayim is mentioned in Torah in conjunction with the (four sets of) tzitzis and (four Torah excerpts in) tefillin. Also, as the meforshim point out, why the dalet of Shma is enlarged and enunciated with care.

There are four levels of control in the universe; Nature, mazalos (constellations,) mal’achim (angels) and Hashem. Perhaps one could divide the macos (plagues) in Mitzrayin correspondingly as follows: blood, frogs, lice – earth; wild animals, plague, boils – circumstance (mazal); locusts, hail, darkness – air (mal’achim) and death of first born – Hashem Himself.

There are four letters in the name Yud Keh Vav Keh, the main midah with which Hashem interacts with the world, and through which most the mitzvos in the Torah are transmitted. On the fourth day of creation, Hashem created the sun and moon, which determine times for most Jewish observance.

So we can now understand why Pesach, the creation of the Nation of Israel, should be so intricately connected to the number four.