how to say “leftovers” in Hebrew
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It’s Monday night in Israel. Some of us are still eating leftovers from שַׁבָּת (Shabbat).
The Hebrew word for leftovers is שְׁאֵרִיוֹת (sheh-eh-ree-YOHT), from the root שׁ.א.ר (sh.a.r), remaining. The singular version is שְׁאֵרִית (sheh-eh-REET), a word that appears frequently in the Prophets section of the Bible, where it refers to the leftovers of the people of Israel after various disasters. There’s a popular song today by the Idan Raichel Project called שְׁאֵרִיוֹת שֶׁל הַחַיִּים (sheh-eh-ree-YOHT shel hah-khah-YEEM) – leftovers of life.
The root שׁ.א.ר appears in two other common Hebrew words, verbs:
לְהִשָּׁאֵר (leh-hee-shah-EHR) – to remain or to stay – for example, נִשְׁאַרְנוּ בַּבַּיִת בִּגְלַל הַגֶּשֶׁם (neesh-AHR-noo bah-BAH-yeet beeg-LAHL hah-GHEH-shem) – we stayed home because of the rain. להישאר is a verb of the נפעל variety.
לְהַשְׁאִיר (leh-hahsh-EER) – to leave something – for example, אֲנַחְנוּ מַשְׁאִירִים אֶת הַדֶּלֶת פְּתוּחָה (ah-NAHKH-noo mahsh-ee-REEM et hah-DEH-let peh-too-KHAH) – we’re leaving the door open. להשאיר is an active-causative הפעיל verb.
Mishnaic Hebrew renders that word לְשַׁיֵּר (leh-shah-YEHR), employing the active-intensive פיעל form and substituting the א (alef) in the root with a י (yod).
