The 16 expressions of forgiveness

In the Ohr Hatorah Mamer ויראו אותה שרי פרעה the Tzemach Tzedek brings that the 4 rivers that come out of gan Eden correspond to the 4 ministering angels  of the nations we were exiled to stating מצרים ויון כו׳ with the four rivers the starting with Egypt etc.

So, if we are trying to correspond the rivers to the exiles perhaps we could start like this:

The first river פישון, the mefarshim say is נילוס the Nile. So, that's easy enough. Although, according to the Ramban, פישון is the east-most river. Although, one might say,  according to the other mefarshim it's talking about the same חוילה. You can see on the map how שור is right next to מצרים. 

Now, the other exiles, בבל, פרס ומדי, יון ואדום its not really clear which are meant here, unless he is quoting from somewhere in particular. So, here is more conjecture. 

The river גיחון surrounds כוש. Now, כוש was the son of חם, like מצרים. So מצרים is described in Tehillim as אדמת בני חם. However, נמרוד, the son of כוש was king, not in Egypt, but in בבל and שנער. So that may account for the second exile.

The third river חידקל is described as to the east of אשור. Now, while אשור exiled the ten tribes, I've never seen אשור described as one of the four main exiles. On the other hand, חידקל is to the west of  מדי and עילם. Meaning, perhaps the exile of מדי ופרס. Although עילם and אשור are sons of שם, we see that מדי and תירס - פרס (see the Ibn Ezra here) are sons of יפת, and brothers of יון. So, perhaps this river corresponds with the exile פרס ומדי. 

Now, the last river, פרת, the Euphrates, is not given any description (interestingly Rashi implies it has to do with the land of Israel) and doesn't seem to correspond to אדום or Rome. The closest river to the land of Edom seems to be נחל הערבה (see map). 

According to the Ibn Ezra, יון and רומי are the same. So perhaps if we can find some connection to יון, we can include Rome. 

Now, Greece itself and Rome are far from all these rivers. While the Aegen sea feeds into the Black sea via the sea of Marmara nothing flows directly from the Aegen sea into the Euphrates. On the other hand אלישה - Cyprus, כתים - Greek islands (other than גוי כריתים - Crete etc) and תרשיש - Tarsus, southern Turkey (north of Cyprus) are all sons of יון. So perhaps what is meant is the exiles East of the Euphrates. Similar to how the rivers חלח חבור וגוזן are used as markers to the exiles of the ten tribes (see map). 

The verse in Yirmia 2:10

כִּי עִבְרוּ אִיֵּי כִתִּיִּים וּרְאוּ וְקֵדָר שִׁלְחוּ וְהִתְבּוֹנְנוּ מְאֹד וּרְאוּ הֵן הָיְתָה כָּזֹאת.

Interestingly, the איי כתיים, the Greek islands, are juxtaposed as one side of the world while the קדר, who are from Yishmael, is the other side, northern Saudi Arabia (Rafa) which is south of the Euphrates. So, you if there is a גלות ישמעאל, perhaps it corresponds with the Euphrates. 

A similar verse with this juxtaposition can be found in Yishaya 42:10-12

...יוֹרְדֵי הַיָּם וּמְלֹאוֹ, אִיִּים וְיֹשְׁבֵיהֶם. 

יא יִשְׂאוּ מִדְבָּר וְעָרָיו, חֲצֵרִים תֵּשֵׁב קֵדָר; יָרֹנּוּ יֹשְׁבֵי סֶלַע, מֵרֹאשׁ הָרִים יִצְוָחוּ.  יב יָשִׂימוּ לַה  וּתְהִלָּתוֹ, בָּאִיִּים יַגִּידוּ.

In addendum to yesterday's post on the exiles and their rivers, the kingdom of Alexander the great extended to the entire region and we were still in Israel during the story of Chanuka etc. So the Euphrates and its association to Israel, as Rashi states may be correct.