how to say “lesson” in Hebrew

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/שיעור-#.m4a” /]שִׁעוּר

The Hebrew word for lesson is שיעור[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/שיעור-#.m4a” /]. It comes from the root ש.ע.ר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/שיעור-#.m4a” /] meaning measure: a lesson is a measured portion of a greater course.

For example:

יש אצלנו 20 שיעורים ברמה.[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/שיעור-#.m4a” /]

We have at our (school) 20 lessons in a level.

You might think that שיעור is related to the word for gate – שער, especially since the name of the Jerusalem neighborhood מאה שערים[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/שיעור-#.m4a” /] comes from the biblical verse:

וַיִּזְרַע יִצְחָק בָּאָרֶץ הַהִוא וַיִּמְצָא בַּשָּׁנָה הַהִוא מֵאָה שְׁעָרִים וַיְבָרֲכֵהוּ ה'. (בראשית כ"ו, י"ב)[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/שיעור-#.m4a” /]

And Isaac planted in that land and he reaped in that year a hundredfold, and God blessed him. (Genesis 26:12)

שער[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/שיעור-#.m4a” /] in מאה שערים refers not to gates, but to measures. And digging into comparison words in other languages (Arabic, Aramaic), we find that שער – measure and שער – gate actually sounded quite different in ancient Hebrew: שער meaning measure had a sh sound at the beginning, while שער meaning gate had a th or t sound, as in the German Tor – gate.