Who knows four?
Please cite/link your sources, if possible. After Shabbat, I will:
Upvote all interesting answers.
Accept the best answer.
Go on to the next number.
Mi Yodeya is a question and answer site for those who base their lives on Jewish law and tradition and anyone interested in learning more. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this communityPlease cite/link your sources, if possible. After Shabbat, I will:
Upvote all interesting answers.
Accept the best answer.
Go on to the next number.
Four are the sheep you give back for stealing and slaughtering/selling one. Bah!
Four is the minimum number of children (two boys, two girls) at which point Rabbi Yehuda Herzl Henkin and Rabbi Herschel Shachter would allow a couple to practice contraception indefinitely.
Four men died without sins:
Binyamin, Amram, Yishai, Kil'av.
The number of columns (turim) of stones on the Choshen Mishpat. (Exodus 28:17)
Ironically enough, Choshen Mishpat is one of the Arba'a Turim. Which brings another answer: the number of sections in the Arba'a Turim and Shulchan Aruch.
... levels on which to understand the Torah: פשט- plain meaning, רמז- hints, דרש- exegesis, סוד- secret, hidden, underlying essential meaning
the most popular number during the Passover Sedar. Four questions. Four sons. Four cups of wine.
I know we all like to provide out-of-the-box answers, but I'm disappointed that I have to be the one to give this answer, and nearly two years after the question was asked - 4 Imahoth (Matriarchs).
Four sons before Leah gave praise/thanks to Hashem (Yehuda). Four are the number of wives (mates) that Yaakov had. Twelve divided by Four equals Three sons per wife. Thus when Yehuda was born, Leah realized she got even more than her "fair share" and gave a special thanks.
4 holy cities, Yerushalayim, Chevron, Teveria, Tzefas
4 shades of white that constitute tzara'at. (Snow, plaster, eggshell and wool)
BS"D
Four rivers emgered out of Gan Edhen "וְנָהָר יֹצֵא מֵעֵדֶן, לְהַשְׁקוֹת אֶת-הַגָּן; וּמִשָּׁם, יִפָּרֵד, וְהָיָה, לְאַרְבָּעָה רָאשִׁים"
Four kingdoms allied and won the first great war " אֵת כְּדָרְלָעֹמֶר מֶלֶךְ עֵילָם, וְתִדְעָל מֶלֶךְ גּוֹיִם, וְאַמְרָפֶל מֶלֶךְ שִׁנְעָר, וְאַרְיוֹךְ מֶלֶךְ אֶלָּסָר--אַרְבָּעָה מְלָכִים, אֶת-הַחֲמִשָּׁה."
Four corners require SiSith "גְּדִלִים, תַּעֲשֶׂה-לָּךְ, עַל-אַרְבַּע כַּנְפוֹת כְּסוּתְךָ, אֲשֶׁר תְּכַסֶּה-בָּהּ"
Four are the cubits of:
The kabbalistic worlds: atzilut, yetzira, beriya, and asiyah.
... are the earthly elemental states according to ancient philosophy and Kabbalah:
Earth (solid), Air (gas), Fire (plasma), and Water (liquid)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_element,
Midrash Rabba, Bamidbar 14,12, טבעים,
Zohar I, 27a,
We Daven four Amidos (colloquially known as Shemonah Esreis) on Shabbos, Yom Tov, and Rosh Chodesh
4 animals mentioned in the Torah that have only one Siman of Tahara and are thus Non-Kosher. (Leviticus 11:4, Deuteronomy 14:7)
Starting from the Shabbos before Rosh Chodesh Adar - or Adar2 in a leap year - we read what is known as the Daled Parshiyos - 4 special readings for the Maftir. Parshas Shekalim, Parshas Zachor, Parshas Parah, and Parshas HaChodesh.
There are four types of death by a Beis Din - Stoning, Burning, Beheading and Strangulation. (Sanhedrin 49b)
They carried out the four death sentences against him (Bilaam). - Sanhedrin 106b
Pirkei Avos Ch. 5:
4 times when pestilence increases - 4th, 7th, and year after shemitta, and after sukkos (12)
4 types of people - what's mine is mine etc... (13)
4 types of mindsets - angers easily cools off easily, angers slowly cools off slowly, angers slowly cools off easily, angers easily cools off slowly (14)
4 types of students - Understand quickly and forgets quickly, understands with difficulty and forgets with difficulty, understands quickly and forgets with difficulty, understands with difficulty and forgets quickly (15)
4 types of tzeddaka givers - gives himself and wants others to give etc... (16)
4 types of people who go to the Beis Medrash - goes and doesn't study, studies and doesn't go, goes and studies, doesn't go and doesn't study (17)
4 types of people who sit before chachamim - sponge, funnel, strainer, sieve (18)
four letter of the tetragrammaton Y-H-V-H which is ultimately the source of most things four you will find in the torah. see shaarei kedusha.
Moshiach has four names. Menachem, Shilo, Yinon, and Chanina which spells Moshiach
On Rosh Chodesh we have four Aliyos to the Torah.
Four is the number of cities King Nimrod sacrificed when he abandoned the cause of the Tower of Babel: Babel, Erech, Achad, and Kaleh.
Four is also the number of cities he was able to build as a reward once he got to Ashur: Ninveh, Rehoboth Ir, Kalah, and the great city, Resen.
(Gen 10:10-12, Targum Pseudo Jonathan ibid)