There are a lot of sets of four in the Torah and below are just a few examples:
“You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in its four corners; two rings shall be on one side, and two rings on the other side.” Exodus 25:12 “And you shall make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings on the four corners that are at its four legs.” Exodus 25:26 “You shall make tassels on the four corners of the clothing with which you cover yourself.” Deuteronomy 22:12
Not only do we keep seeing a set of four the number four is associated with corners “He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” Isaiah11:12. Now we know it is not saying the earth is a flat square. “It is He [God] who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.” Isaiah 40:22.
The earth is a circle however tents tend to have corners and God symbolic represents the expanse of His creation as having corners like a tent which means as far as the farthest point as in any direction it is in included within the boundaries of His creation.
So why do Jewish men wear four tassels on the corners of their garments? Because the four corners represent the expanse of God’s creation within a certain space such as the earth (although we know Gods creation expands beyond that) placing four tassels on four corners of the garment may show that you as a unique individual belong to God.
Also, because each person has four corners on their own garment it can teach us to have healthy boundaries in our relationships with others and take responsibility for ourselves instead of allowing others to force us to live outside our boundaries or trying to force others to fit into the confines we built for them.
Our relationship to God is on an individual level and God expects us to remember to follow Him for ourselves and respect others as individuals and allow each person to follow the calling God has for them. Remember the four tassels are used and the four corners remind us everything even to the farthest point in any direction belongs to God and we can only obey God for ourselves. We cannot follow God for anyone else or allow anyone else to make our choices for us.
Picture originally found here
