The value of the names of the four holy cities of the Land of Israel—Yerushalayim, Hebron, Tzefat, and Tiberias (יְרוּשָׁלַיִם חֶבְרוֹן צְפַת טְבֶרְיָה)—is 1644, which is the value of the verse, “You shall love Havayah your God, with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your might” (וְאָהַבְתָּ אֵת הוי-ה אֱ-לֹהֶיךָ בְּכָל לְבָבְךָ וּבְכָל נַפְשְׁךָ וּבְכָל מְאֹדֶךָ).
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1644 is also the value of 4 times “chaos” (תֹּהוּ) or “wasteland.” By settling these cities and filling them with people, we rectify the state of “chaos” in reality, following the injunction of the prophet Isaiah (45:18), “For thus says God, the Creator of heaven… who formed the Earth and made it, who alone established it; He did not create it [the Earth] to be a wasteland.”
