Gates of the heart: Gates in Torah and Judaism

Gates, as entrances and exits, have long captured our imagination. 

The Hebrew word for gate, sha’ar (and its inflections), appears more than 350 times in the Bible. The imagery of gates in Judaism encompasses both historical and spiritual layers, deeply embedded in religious texts, liturgical practices, and artistic expressions. Gates are a multifaceted image, symbolic on many levels.

Commentators consider that the first time a word is mentioned in the Torah tells you its deepest meaning. The first “sha’ar” comes immediately after the binding of Isaac, when Abraham is blessed and promised that “your descendants will inherit the gate of their enemies” (Genesis 22:17). And when Rebecca leaves her family to marry Isaac, she receives a similar blessing: “May your offspring take possession of the gate of those who hate them” (Genesis 24:60).

Gates, then, are points of power and protection. To possess the gate of our enemies is to control the forces that want to harm us. In ancient Israel, our gates were the stronghold of our national life. Much of Jewish life transpired at the gates to the city, where the elders would gather and prophets would speak.

In addition, gates have long symbolized the point of communication between worlds. After Jacob has the dream of the ladder, he says, “This is no other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Genesis 28:17). After the gates of Jerusalem were razed and the holy Temple was destroyed, the spiritual significance of gates became more and more emphasized. Our sages tell us that the gate of heaven is the place to which our prayers ascend.

Gates in Jewish tradition

The word sha’ar comes from the same Hebrew root as shiur (measure). In a Kabbalistic interpretation of the verse “Her husband is known in the gates,” the Zohar tells us that the husband is a metaphor for God, whose understanding is only known in measures. The Holy One makes Himself known to each individual according to the measure of the understanding of his or her heart. It is said that there are 50 gates to understanding the oneness of God.

Our tradition is rich with gates: Gates of Repentance, Gates of Prayer, Gates of Righteousness, Gates of introspection and reflection – all thresholds of revelation where the divine reaches into the human realm. “Open for me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter and thank God. This is the gateway to the Lord; the righteous shall enter it” (Psalm 118).

Our liturgy tells us that every morning, light breaks through the gates of the East as God bestows mercy on the world and its inhabitants. For the artist, light breaking through gates signals the transformative breakthrough into new realms of the imagination. For Yoram Raanan, the fascination with gates is also about the contrast of form and structure with abstraction, symbolizing the beauty of the connection between matter and spirit.

His painting Gates of the Heart is part of a new series exploring the metaphor of the gate. This painting appears to be an abstract rendition of one of Jerusalem’s gates, as well as an abstract expression of the gates of the heart. In the back-and-forth play between representation and abstraction, the gateway emerged in the shape of two tablets, echoing the injunction to write the Torah’s commandments on the tablets of our hearts.

Above the heart-shaped tablets are luminous shapes like golden crowns, symbolizing the crown of Torah. In certain ancient Tunisian synagogues, there are images of tablets with three crowns atop them – representing the crowns of Torah, priesthood, and kingship.

In the painting, there is a deep contrast between the alizarin crimson and gold, earth and blood, light and spirit. The lines in the gate were created with the fingers, while the sparks of light were applied with the palms of the hands. (Raanan says, “Fingers are great tools that God gave us. Brushes have hairs, while fingers have many angles and possibilities.”) A pathway leads to the opening of the gate into a beyond that suggests endless possibilities.

Gates open and gates close, but, we are told, there is one gate that is never closed. “From the day that the Temple was destroyed, the gates of tears are not closed” (Brachot 32b). Since Oct. 7, the gates of tears have opened wide. But God has promised us twice that we will possess the gates of our enemies.■

Meira Raanan is the author of Art of Revelation: A Visual Encounter with the Jewish Bible, a commentary on the paintings by her husband, Yoram Raanan. She also teaches Jewish meditation.

Esther Cameron is a poet, scholar, and essayist living in Jerusalem. She is editor-in-chief of The Deronda Review.