NM 1 A négy királyság

Therefore the empires are appropriately four, for the empires are the deviation from the glory of Hashem, and Hashem is One, and the center is connected to One because the center is the point of oneness. Accordingly, the Holy Temple and Jerusalem are both One, and thus they are the center of the world. For the center is suited for this. So too Yisrael are one nation, suited for them is the land [Israel] which is one alone, for it is the center of the world. The general principle is that an entity which is one is suited to be in the center. A deviation from oneness connects to fourness, corresponding to the four directions which diverge from the middle. Therefore the empires are four, corresponding to the four directions which diverge from the center. It's for this reason that we expounded from the language "unformed and void" four empires, because this wording speak to the essential lack within creation itself, and from the aspect of lack within the creation itself these four empires were born. They [the four empires] are unique for this matter, for their dominion deviates from Hashem until they erase his Oneness in the world. And the disposal of these four empires was said: (Zecharia: 14,9) "And the LORD shall be king over all the earth; in that day there shall be one LORD with one name." As long as these four empires rule the world, the glory of Hashem will not be revealed in his world. Therefore these four empires, vis-a-vis the lack within creation itself (for it would be definitionally impossible to find a creation in total completeness, it must contain lack). And this lack is not vis-a-vis Hashem who created everything, rather vis-a-vis the created world itself. And this is concealed and hinted at through the verse: "When God began to create heaven and earth—. the earth being unformed and void" etc.. for the earth which is the lower [element of creation] therewith darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water—"