Parshat Vaera - 5764

Four Expressions of Redemption - and Four other Four’s

The early parashiyot of Sefer Shemot are most closely associated with Pesach, the “Time of our Freedom.” The “Kli Yakar” comments on verses Shemot 6:6-7 which contain the famous four Expressions of Redemption, “Vehotzeti,” “And I will take you out,” “Vehitzalti,” And I will save you,” “Vegaalti,” “And I will redeem you,” “Velakachti,” “and I will take you,” that they correspond to the four increasingly severe expressions of servitude which Hashem had foretold to our father Avraham. They were “gerut,” Physical Exile, “Your descendants will be ... strangers in a strange land,” and the expression “strangers in a strange land” implies also Spiritual Exile, for “anyone who is outside of the Land of Israel is as one who has no G-d.” “Va’avadum,” “And they will enslave them,” a harsher level, for not every stranger is enslaved. Finally, “V’inu otam,” “And they will torture them;” again, a still harsher level, for not every slave is tortured.

The “Kli Yakar” also explains the four-fold occurrence of the Name of G-d in the verse that Moshe relates to his brothers in Egypt, “the G-d of your fathers, the G-d of Avraham, the G-d of Yitzchak and the G-d of Yaakov has sent me to you.” Redemption from Exile, physical and spiritual, was in the merit of Avraham, for leaving the house of his father and following the direction of Hashem to a strange land, where he “acquired souls.” The merit of Yitzchak, who willingly allowed himself to be offered as a burnt sacrifice to G-d, saved the Jewish People from Physical Slavery. The merit of Yaakov, whose life could be described as "agony and ecstasy," with emphasis on the agony, caused Hashem to release the Jews from their torturers. And the combined merit of all the “Avot” enabled the Jewish People to achieve the level of Spiritual Redemption, the Acceptance of the Torah.

The number “Four,” in addition to its significance as the number of Expressions of Redemption, also plays a role on Pesach in other ways. The Haggadah speaks of the “arbaah banim,” the four types of “sons,” or the four “personality types” that exist within the Jewish People and, perhaps, as explained by Rabbi Berel Wein, obviously with different parameters that may approach zero for a given individual, within each Jew. These are the wise "son," component of the Jewish population or of one's personality, who fully appreciates the privilege of being a member of “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,” the wicked "son," who rejects the notion of “Torah min HaShamayim,” the Divine origin of the Torah in all its forms, the simple "son," who has no appreciation for the sophistication of Chaza”l, and the "son" who is too intellectually lazy even to ask a question about aspects of life that he does not understand, and chooses to ignore the spiritual component of life.

We also drink four cups of wine at the Seder, at points within the ceremony which are most appropriate for expressions of praise or gratitude to Hashem. This drinking of wine is not at all designed to put us into a state of drunkenness, but rather to exploit another characteristic of wine, to raise us to a state of exaltation and joy.

In the song at the end of the Seder, where we are asked, “Who knows” the various numbers from one to thirteen, the answer given in the Haggadah for number “four” is the four “Imahot,” the immortal mothers of our People: Sarah, Rivkah, Rachel and Leah, whose higher level of prophecy and greater insight saved the “Avot” from critical errors with regard to their children. The women of Israel are also given credit for inspiring their husbands not to give up under the pressure of the harsh Egyptian decrees.

Perhaps there is even a “remez,” an allusion to the four dimensions of the world, three of space and one of time. These dimensions encompass the arena in which Jewish History has been played out, all over the world, and since the beginning of our nation - in the "house of bondage" that was ancient Egypt - and subsequently, in the ghettos and concentration camps, and in the lives of the faithful heroes and heroines of our nation. And this is especially appropriate in the context of the Seder, where the obligation upon every Jew to “see himself as if he had gone out of Mitrayim” is a major theme.

According to the Hebrew Calendar, we are in Year 5764 since "Creation," and according to a correction in historical dating documented by the late Rabbi Shimon Schwab, Z"L, Rav of K'hal Adas Yeshurun in Washington Heights, we are already past the Year 5924. Thus we are but a "minute" from Year 6000, which many feel is a "Messianic Milestone." And because it does indeed seem that the process of “Kibbutz Galuyot,” the “Ingathering of the Exiles,” a precursor of the arrival of the Mashiach, is well under way, it is with increasing excitement and anticipation that we evoke our national collective memories, on the night of the Seder.

Rabbi Pinchas Frankel
Rabbi Frankel is an Educational Coordinator at the OU

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