Why the Name “Shaar Israel?”

“Shaar Israel” with slight variation in pronunciations means “the remnant of Israel” as well as “the gate of Israel.”   It was chosen as the name for this web site since this quintessential reference by Isaiah embodies the core principle and foundation of all prophecies in the Tanach about the nature of Israel's existence and journey through time as described in the Bible and in history.  It is one of exile and return:

“And it shall come to pass in that day, that the 'remnant' of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the L-RD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.  The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.”   — Isa. 10:20-21, (KJV, JPS)

The present day beginning of the “return of the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty G-d” from among the exiled Ten Tribes is the focus of this website. It is to serve as one instrument to network the members of this growing grassroots movement, whose founding and development was not engendered by any human individual or organization but by the G-d of Israel.  We are praying and hoping that this site and its constituents will be guided further as part of that work of the G-d of Jacob who has started to awaken a vanguard of early returnees to become aware of their long-hidden identity of having descended from the so-called “lost Ten Tribes of Israel.” Their identity is chronicled in the testimony of their past history of rebellions, apostasy, exile from the Land of Israel, dispersion and subsequent loss of identity as members of the Tribes of Israel, “the chosen firstborn priesthood people” of G-d.  Theirs is the saga of the Israel-centric writings of the Bible.  As “the people of the Covenant,” they were to become teachers of the instructions from the Father of all mankind to the rest of G-d’s  children.  Their “teacher training” as such, necessitated the hard lessons of  exile and dispersion from their Promised Land, so they would learn the curriculum themselves in order to teach it to the rest of the nations on Earth, (Hos. 4:6-9).  By G-d’s grace their prophesied return into the lost heritages of their Israelite identities has begun in our days with the initial gathering of a few, one from a city, two from a family, (Jer. 3:14, Isa. 46:3-5).  These are coalescing into small groups, which comprise “an early remnant” who are called to blaze a trail for others to follow:

“Then I shall scatter you among the nations and disperse you among the lands and remove all your contamination from you. Then you shall be caused to re-inherit yourself in the sight of the nations, and you shall know that I am HaShem.”    —Ez. 122:15-16, (Artscroll Chumash)                                                               

The name “Sha'ar Israel” is derived from the two variant spellings of two similar sounding words.  The first one, shaar /   שער is spelled with an ayin,  meaning “gate.”

This meaning of shaar refers to a whole gate complex and the open areas on either side of it.  In ancient times it was the means of controlled access to a walled city.  The root idea of the cognates of this word in Ugaritic, Arabic and Phoenician is “to split   open,” or as in Ethiopic, “to break through.”  It was extremely important in the life of the city dwellers and people about, for social, administrative and business transactions took place there.  Kings and city elders sat there to administer justice, (Deut: 21:19, Josh. 20:4).  Its square was often doubling as a threshing floor, and was a natural congregating place, where prophets frequently spoke to the people, (Kings 7:1, II Kings 22:10, Jer. 17:19-20, 36:10). 

The place of administering  justice  was “at the gate,” (Prov. 22:22, Amos 5:15).  The term also represented the whole city, (Gen. 22:17, 24:60), e.g. where Abraham's seed was to “possess the gate of his enemies.”  It is an overall symbol of means of access and entrance, e.g. “gate of the Lord,” (Psalm 118:20), and “the gate of heaven,” (Gen 28:10).  According to the late Ephraim Avigdor Speiser, eminent Assyriologist and professor of Hebrew and Semitic languages, the phrase “those who enter the gate,” (Gen. 23:10), refers to those who have a voice in the community, while “those who go out the gate,” refers to those capable to bear arms” (Gen.34:24).

—Harris, Archer & Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, Article #2437, Sha'ar /Gate, p. 945.

The second variant, Sh'ar spelled with an aleph, שאר, provides a more specific  dimension of the name Sha'ar Israel.” It seems to be used almost exclusively to indicate the static action of surviving after an elimination process.  Whether the elimination was a natural process, e.g. when Naomi's husband died, (Ruth 1:3), humanly caused  (I Sam. 9:24), or Divinely caused (Ex. 10:19), it always points to that which remains or has survived, e.g.

“Samuel said, ‘Are these all the boys?’  And he said, ‘The youngest one is still left / שאר; he is tending the sheep now….’”      — I Sam. 16:11 (Artscroll Tanach)

A derivative, “sh'ar,” used 26 times, is also translated as the rest, remnant, residue,  e.g.  Isa. 10:19-22, 11:11,16, Zeph. 1:4. It refers to that which has survived after elimination, a judgment, a catastrophe.  It is used to refer to a historic remnant, as in Neh. 10:28, or the prophesied final remnant of Israel in Isa. 11:11, 16.

Sh'ar is used as the name of one of Isaiah's children, “Sh'ar Yashuv,” literally “A-Remnant shall-return.”  This name testified to wicked King Ahaz, and all Israel, that they were to be driven from the Land due to their sins, but that some day “a remnant” would return, (Isa. 7:3).

“Thus G-d has sent me ahead of you to insure your sh'arit / survival in the land and to sustain you for a momentous deliverance.”  — Gen 45:7

In the vast majority of cases the context shows that the remnant is that which has come or will come out from the House of Israel.  This meaning and connotation is most significant for our concerns, for sh'arit refers to the final future remnant of Israel, who will come into the blessings of the Redemption, (Zech. 8:6, 11-12), when all of Israel having been regathered from the East and the West, will be called “my people.”    (Zech. 8:7-9, 12) —Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, Harrris, Archer, Waltke, articles shaar, shear, shearit, 2307, 2307a, 2307b, p. 894-5.

We can find subtle hints to a subject matter in the Tanakh, when we study the first use of its associated terms.  As such, all the terms translated as “remnant” have very important relevance to the modern day remnant that G-d is calling out now to do His assignments in His end-time Work of Eli-Yah.   Sh'ar / שאר is the most often used word in the Tanakh for “remnant.”  It simply means, “the remainder” that is left or is set aside from a larger group. The returning Israelites gathering in this group could be characterized as such.   It is notable that the first place this word is used is in the setting of Josiah's restoration of the worship of G-d from amidst gross idolatry, and total loss of Torah knowledge.  He does this with the assistance of funds from the then “remnant” of Israel, from Ephraim, Menashe, Benjamin and of Judah.

“They went to Hilkiah, the Cohen Gadol, and delivered the money that had been brought for the Temple of God — which the gatekeepers had collected from Manasseh and Ephraim and from the rest of the remnant of Israel, and from Judah and Benjamin, and then returned to Jerusalem.” — II Chron. 34:9 (Artscroll Tanach) 

The context of this event parallels and foretells the context of similar apostasy, loss of Torah knowledge and manifold idolatries among the Tribes of the “latter days.”  Interestingly, in this historical record, perhaps some from the the tribes of Ephraim, Menashe, Benyamin, and Yehudah are prophetically foreshadowed here as being instrumental in the future in providing the funds and work force to the  initial “end-time” revival among the Tribes of Israel.

Another most relevant word translated as “remnant,” is p’leitah /  פליתה.   It designates “an escaped portion,” i.e. a company of fugitives / survivors.  The first occurrence is in Ezra 9:8. The setting is where the small contingent of returnees from the Babylonian captivity have confessed their sins and the sins of their fathers.  They viewed themselves as recipients of G-d's mercy reviving them. They covenanted among themselves to return fully to the ways of G-d that they abandoned as a people.  In Ez. 6:8, “the remnant” / p’leitei, are escapees who are saved from the sword, that they may remember G-d in their captivity which their idolatry has brought upon them.  In Ez. 14:22, another remnant / p’leitah  is showcased.  They are witnesses who testify of G-d's mercies by their doings. The prophetic portent of this historical event, may  imply that given the calamitous circumstances that are to come upon Israel in the last days, they may be accounted for mercy and escape the harsh wake-up calls and punishments  to come upon the world.

The difficult to read and translate word sheritecha /  שרותך rendered as “remnant,” in the KJV and Artscroll Chumash, is used only once in the Bible, Jer. 15:11. Those who will have been delivered, are promised as with an oath, that it shall “remain for well” for them, in times of evil, affliction and near total destruction.  An implication of this meaning comes down to us into modern usage, meaning “services” like a taxi, or any kind of helping service of a humble nature.  It gives us, the remnant of “proud” Ephraim a clue as to how we are to behave and serve as this “prophetic notation and hint” says.

Yeter /  יתר  also translated as “remnant.”  In the KJV means the rest.   It is also the root word for yoter, meaning more.  This carries the connotation of leaving, causing to abound.  It is not necessarily a small group.

“Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth and the rest / yeter of his brothers return to join the Israelites.”  —Micah 5:3 NIV Achar /  אחר  is also translated as “remnant” connoting last, the very last part, as in I Kings 14:10, where the very last remnant of the house of Jeroboam is to be expunged for causing the northern House of Israel to go into idolatry.  We see the same use in Ez. 23:25, where even the very last remnant / אחרית of Judah is to fall by the sword as punishment for their idolatry.

For the purposes of this website, the name “Sha'ar Israel” refers to the prophesied “remnant / שאר of Israel,” who are called to return to the G-d of Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the “last days.”  It is understood that these “returnees” are coming out of the religious deceptions of the world's religions, and have set their, hearts minds and hands to follow His Torah's path of obedience and Abrahamic faith /trust. On this return journey they follow the injunction G-d’s prophets to look to Abraham’s and Sarah’s examples to leave behind the idolatrous legacy of religious lies they have inherited from their fathers, (Isa. 16:9, 51:2).  As the reclaimed seed of Abraham, gathered from the ends of the Earth, they trust the Keeper of Israel to guide them through the many unprecedented calamities that have begun to befall the persecutors of Israel and all the evil inhabitants of the Earth in these “the last days.”  They realize that they are being regathered as the first ones of a worldwide "Work" of the Shepherd of Israel, who will have regathered “more” of them, even “the very last part” of Israel, (Amos. 9:9) till they “abound” in the Land.  This remnant, a very small proportion of both houses of Israel realize and know in their heart that they are called to do their assigned part in the Work of Eli-Y-h, which restores the heart of the “children’s children” to the heart of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, (Isa. 41:8-14, Mal. 3:23-34).

By the mercies and Guidance of the G-d of Israel, we hope that this site will serve as a  congregating place for early returnees.  We desire that with the Guidance and blessing of the Almighty, Sh'aar Israel will serve as a gate / שער  to a networked community, where the remnant / שאר of the Tribes will gather themselves together as instructed by our father Yaakov, and the prophet Isaiah, (Gen 49:2, Isa. 45:20). We hope to generate a communal voice with which to exhort each other to return to the Covenant and do our allotted work with the guidance of the divinely given Words that the G-d of Israel opens to our understanding in these “last days:”

“Then they that feared the L-RD, spake of the one to another, and the L-RD hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the L-RD, and that thought upon His name.”   —Malachi 3:16

Isaiah speaks to us of the significance of gates in the latter days:

"Go through, go through the gates; clean the people’s way; beat down, beat down the highway, clear it of stone, raise a banner over the people.”