Later in parashat Vayishlach, when Jacob was returning with his family after twenty years outside of the land, the number 400 reappears. Esau came to meet Jacob with 400 men so that he could prevent him from re-entering the Land that is 400 by 400 parsah.
By merit of Jacob’s twenty years of Divine service, when he spiritually redeemed and elevated sparks of Divine holiness from the depths of exile (20 squared is also 400), he was able to subdue Esau and his 400 men.
After the encounter between Esau and Jacob ends peacefully, the Torah reports that Esau left for Mount Seir. Curiously, the 400 men who came with him go unmentioned. Once Jacob prevailed over Esau’s angel and then emerged the next day unscathed from his confrontation with Esau, the spiritual strength of the 400 men was dissipated to the point that they actually disappeared from the scene altogether.
Paralleling the law of conservation of energy, the 400 men and the energy they embody were actually transformed by what transpired. They reappeared at a later time in Jewish history as the 400 men who were the first to recognize David’s greatness—even while he was still being pursued by Saul—and joined his ranks before he became king.
David went on to become king of all of Israel and was more successful than any other figure in Jewish history in establishing a kingdom incorporating nearly the entire 400 parsah by 400 parsah recognized by the sages. David who had red hair was actually considered the rectification of Esau who is also known as Edom, “the red one.” The transformation of the 400 men of Esau to the incarnated 400 men of David symbolizes this rectification.
Here we see a beautiful example of how “connecting the dots” within the Torah text, in this case the number 400, reveals deep connections that otherwise might go unrecognized. Jewish numerology, reveals a deeper set of correspondences than immediately apparent in the literal text and points to an entire mathematical structure underlying the Torah. Similar to how physics and chemistry rest on a mathematical foundation, so too, deeper dimensions of Torah are revealed through gematria and a host of other numerical methodologies.
Yet, it is not Kabbalah alone which employs gematria and other insights gleaned from mathematical phenomena. The Talmud, Midrash and Rashi, for example, also use these techniques of learning on occasion in order to point out a cogent idea, and it has been used as well by a wide range of commentators throughout the ages. In as much as Kabbalah seeks to make known the oneness of God and the interconnectedness of all reality, gematria and other numerical methodologies assume a major role in revealing this unity through the Torah text.
