Fours and Eights: Random Musings

As the eight days of Chanukah approach, I think back to the other recent eight-day festival, which was Succos, especially because Jewish tradition suggests that the process of reconnecting with G-d that, on the surface, culminated with Succos, actually culminates with Chanukah. (About this connection, some other time.)

These connecting eights brought me back to the old year, which I ended in an unspectacular way. I had to purchase four new tires for my car in Jerusalem. The bill: exactly 800 shekel. And I began the new year by purchasing the arba minim for Succos — the Four Species: esrog, lulav, myrtle hadassim, willow aravos .The bill: exactly 800 shekel.

The parallel struck me: eight for four tires, eight for the Four Species. Was it a coincidence, or did it have some hidden meaning? Who knows? The four tires will hopefully carry me safely through this new year. And the Four Species? One does not do mitzvos for their reward, but perhaps the merit of this mitzvah will help carry my neshamah through this new year. But there must be more to it than that.

Consider that figure of 800. Eight is the number that transcends the physical world that was created in seven days. Eight thus represents a higher, supernatural world, which is appropriate for the Four Minim. But the four tires? Do they represent the four corners of the universe, or the four Matriarchs, or the Four Sons of the Pesach Haggadah, or the Seder’s mandatory four cups of wine? There is an endless list of fours, but none seems to have any connection to automobile tires.