The gemara cites Reish Lakish who says that from the pasuk, זאת התורה לעלה למנחה ולחטאת ולאשם, we learn that whoever engages in Torah study is considered as if he offered an Olah, a Mincha, a Chatas and an Asham. Why are only these four karbonos mentioned and not for example the Karbon Shelamim?
We begin Maariv with ישחיתולא עון והוא רחום יכפר חמתוולא יעיר כל אפווהרבה להשיב, He, the Merciful One, is forgiving of iniquity and does not destroy. Frequently He withdraws His anger, not arousing His entire rage.
The Zohar notes the four forces of evil mentioned here — עון, משחית, אף, חמה. Night is where the evil forces have rulership. Consequently, we begin Maariv with this in order to counter these four evil forces so that they shouldn't rule over us.
The Eretz Hachaim authored by R' Avraham Chaim Hakohen tells us that when there was a Beis Hamikdash, we nullified these evil forces with the four karbonos of טאתח שם, אנחה, מולה, ע. The first letters of these four are ע, מ, א, ח. These correspond to the four evil forces of ון, ע מהח, ףאשחית, מ. Because of this Reish Lakish mentioned only these four karbonos.
The four species that we take on Succos subdue these four evil forces. A hint to this is found in the gematria of אתרג, לולב, הדס and ערבה, which is 1018. This is the identical gematria of עון, משחית, אף, חמה.
Learning Torah also subdues these forces. A hint to this is found in the words זאת התרה (spelled without the ו), which is the beginning of the pasuk mentioned above. These words have a gematria of 1018, the same as עון, משחית, אף, חמה.
