Soferim (Talmud)

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Masekhet Soferim (

Talmudic tractate dealing especially with the rules relating to the preparation of holy books, as well as with the laws of Torah reading. One of the minor tractates, it is generally thought to have originated in eighth-century Land of Israel.[1] Being of late and uncertain date, it is now generally printed as Talmudic addenda.[2]

Chapters

Yemenite Torah scrolls

Soferim consists of 21 chapters, containing 225 paragraphs ("halakhot") in all. The chapters may be summarized as follows:

1: On parchment and other writing-material; language, and translation of the
Jewish Scriptures; the Septuagint
; persons who are qualified to prepare books; leaves and pages; open and closed paragraphs.
2: Spaces between letters, words, lines, pages, and books; space-lines; number of columns to the leaf, and lines to the column; width and height of the scrolls; rollers; sewing; mending; final letters.
3: Writing several books on a single scroll; verse-marks in the scroll of the Law; superscriptions; palimpsests; procedure in regard to incorrectly written scrolls; rolling and unrolling; manner of rolling and reading; respectful handling of the scroll of the Law; careful use of food as a gift of God.
4: The names of God and the interdiction against erasing them;
Masoretic
enumeration of such names; the sinfulness of profanely using any of them.
5: Sacrosanct writing of the names of God; scribal errors in such and in the lines of the sacred scroll; the Divine Name on vessels and utensils; preservation of scrolls and other writings which have become useless; use of loaned writings.
6: Points written in the Torah; textual variations in the ancient scrolls used in the
Temple at Jerusalem
; Masoretic textual and orthographical variants.
7: Masoretic combination of the Qere and Ketiv.
8: Textual variants in
II Kings
18-20
9: Capital letters in the Torah; written words for which others must be substituted in reading; passages which are neither read nor translated.
10: General laws of Torah reading; number of readers; number of persons requisite for public religious functions; kaddish and barekhu.
11: Order of Torah reading and of the translations to be read; errors in Torah reading
12: Method of reading the curses, the songs, and the
Deuteronomy
32, as well as the order of reading Deuteronomy 32.
13: Method of writing the
Mafṭir
and the reading of the Torah.
14: Blessing on reading the Hagiographa in general and the scroll of Esther in particular; liturgical observances prefatory to the reading; persons authorized to read and to officiate as
mezuzot
.
15: Sanctity of other religious writings; diversity of the rabbinical sciences; occupations to be taught to children.
16: Value of the study of the Torah; the
Kedushah prayer
.
17: General laws on the sections prescribed for the festivals; assistants at the sacrifice and their prayers; lessons and psalms for
Rosh Hodesh
.
18: Daily and festival psalms; order of prayer for the anniversary of the
destruction of Jerusalem; observances for the Yom Kippur
.
19: Further regulations regarding the psalms for festivals; formulas of prayer for the festivals; eulogy on announcing the new moon; benedictions for weddings and funerals.
20: Kiddush levana; lighting the Hanukkah candles; blessings and Torah reading for Hanukkah; the Kedushah prayer on holidays; "Hallel."
21:
Jewish Patriarchs.[3]

Divisions

Soferim may be divided into three main divisions: chapters 1–5, 6–9, and 10–21, the last of which is subdivided into two sections, 10-15 and 16:2-21. The tractate derives its name from its first main division (chapters 1–5), which treats of writing

scrolls of the Law, thus conforming to the ancient custom of naming a work according to its initial contents.[4]

According to

hazzanim than for scribes
: it is in great part confined to ritual laws, although it must be borne in mind that the same person doubtless combined the functions of scribe and reader.

First part

This first part is the earliest component of the work, and is extant also as an independent "minor tractate," entitled Massekhet Sefer Torah;[6] in this form it is a systematic work, but as incorporated in Soferim, although its division into chapters and paragraphs has been retained, its order has been disarranged by interpolations. A comparison of the two texts shows in an instructive way how ancient Jewish works developed in the course of time. The minor tractate Sefarim, edited by Schönblum, is not earlier (as he assumes) but rather later than Masseket Sefer Torah, from which it is an extract. The name "Sefarim" (= "books") is merely the plural of "sefer," designating the Torah as "the book" par excellence.

Second part

Chapters 6 to 9 constitute a separate part, containing

Judean
, and were intended for the scribes; the last three halakhot are a kind of appendix relating to the reading of certain words and passages.

Third part

The third division is chiefly devoted to rules concerning the order of

Babylonian
might have used such expressions, although these passages may be interpolations.

The second section of the last portion (16:2-21) was added latest of all. It contains passages from the

Judean
in origin, as is shown by the use of the name "Nazarene."

Place of composition

Many details of the text indicate detailed knowledge of the Jerusalem Talmud and the custom of the Land of Israel, and thus point to an origin there (rather than in Babylonia):

The hypothesis that Soferim is based on Palestinian sources agrees with the ancient tradition (

I.H. Weiss, also accept this view.[12] There were scholars in Palestine even after the final redaction of Jerusalem Talmud,[13]
and the Bible was still the chief subject of study.

Date of composition

The evidence of all these facts makes it very probable that this tractate was finally redacted about the middle of the 8th century, an assumption which is supported by the statement of

chazzan and reader. It was natural, therefore, that in tractates intended for the scribes all the regulations should be collected which concerned books, the Masorah, and the liturgy. It is practically certain that few copies of the Talmud
were made at that time, and those without special rules; consequently no allusions to them are found in Soferim.

The fact that no sources are given for a number of the regulations in the first part points to an early date of composition.

midrashic
works, which, indeed, they may be regarded as in part replacing. Only certain interpolations, as well as the aggadic passage at the end of the tractate (or, in several manuscripts, at its beginning), may have been added much later. The division of the last part into sections ("perakim") seems to have been intended to secure a uniform size for the several sections; for 16:1 belongs to the end of chapter 15, and 19:1 to the end of 18, their separation being due to external reasons.

Notable laws

As the substance of the tractate has been incorporated in later works on orthography, the

Writings
be combined]; in a scroll the Torah and the Prophets must be kept separate"; while the following section describes a scroll of the Law as being divided into verses (doubtless by means of blank spaces), or as having the initial portion of its verses pointed. Among the ancients the beginning ("resh pasuk") of a verse rather than the end ("sof pasuk") was emphasized, since the former was important mnemonically. There were scribes, therefore, who marked the initial of the verse, although there is no trace of such points in the present Masorah and system of accentuation.

The earliest passage referring to "dyed leather" (parchment) is 3:13, although it is possible, in view of 2:10, that originally בעורות צבאים (with deer leather) stood in place of בעורות צבועים (with dyed leather). Even if that be true, however, this is still the first reference to colored parchment for

synagogal scrolls; for nothing else could be implied by these words in the received reading. The skin of game was a favorite writing-material; so that while it was forbidden to use half leather and half parchment, half leather and half skin of game were allowable.[19] It was forbidden, moreover, to cut the edges of books (5:14). A scribal term which does not occur elsewhere is found in 5:1,2 (מעכב, variant reading מחטב). There were generally 72 lines to the column in a scroll of the Law (12:1). The passage 13:1 refers to the stichic writing of the Psalms; Book of Job, and Proverbs; and the remark "A good scribe will note" shows that the passage was written at a time when this detail was no longer generally observed.[20]

Soferim is the first work to distinguish between the three grades of inspiration in the Bible: Torah,

Neviim ("divrei kabbala"), and Ketuvim ("divrei kedushah").[21]

Halakhic authority

Because Soferim belongs to the

Kethuvim
; this berakha, too (different in text from the one for the megilloth) is mentioned only in Soferim, and not in the Talmud. However, these rulings have not been accepted by all groups of Jews.

External links

"Tractate Soferim" (in Hebrew and English).

References

  1. SUNY
    Mysticism and Religion) (9780791436028): p239 "In Masekhet Soferim, the apocryphal talmudic work generally thought to have originated in eighth- century Palestine, the form of this passage is barukh bor' ekha, barukh yotserekha, barukh meqaddeshekha, "Blessed be the One who created.. "
  2. ^ Tessa Rajak Translation and Survival p. 304 "... masekhet sefer torah (1: 8-9), and masekhet soferim (1: 7-8), of late and uncertain date and generally printed now as Talmudic addenda [...] Both tractates doubtless contain early material among their regulations, but the attitudes they evince are likely to belong to seventh or eighth century CE."
  3. ^ Müller, Masseket Soferim, etc., pp. 37 et seq.
  4. ^ Compare Blau, Zur Einleitung in die Heilige Schrift, pp. 31 et seq., Strasburg, 1894
  5. ^ G. V. 2d ed., p. 100, notes a,b; he provides the following elaboration: "Rules for writing and for the Masorah are found in 1 (1-6,9-14); 2; 3 (1-9, 10a, 11, 12, 13 [in part], 14-16); 4-8; 9 (1-7); 12 (8b, 9-12); 13 (1-4, 6a, 7); 15 (1-5); 17 (1); synagogual ritual in 9 (8-11); 10; 11; 12 (1-7, 8a); 13 (5, 8-14); 14; 15 (12,end); 17 (2-11); 18-20; 21 (1-8); aggadah in 1 (7-8); 3 (10b, 13 [in part]); 13 (6b, 10); 16 (1-11, 12a); 21 9"
  6. ^ Edited by Raphael Kirchheim 1851
  7. ^ Pirkei De-Rabbi Eliezer 17,end
  8. ^ Müller, l.c. p. 277, note 67
  9. Megillah
    4:2
  10. discuss the same question.
  11. ^ Orient, 1851, p. 218
  12. Steinschneider, Jüdische Literatur, pp. 369 et seq., and Henry Malter
    's Hebrew translation, Sifrut Yisrael, p. 44, Warsaw, 1897; Kirchheim, preface to his edition of Masseket Soferim; Brüll's Jahrb. i. 4
  13. ^ Zunz, l.c. p. 322, note a
  14. ^ c. 1300, in Hilkhot Sefer Torah
  15. Megillah
    18a, and see Blau, l.c. pp. 70 et seq.
  16. Shabbat
    15c, 25
  17. Machzor Vitry
    , p. 689, note
  18. ^ Compare Machzor Vitry p. 691
  19. ^ 2:10
  20. ^ Compare Müller, ad loc., and Machzor Vitry, p. 704
  21. ^ Soferim 18:3,end

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the

Ludwig Blau (1901–1906). "Soferim". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia
. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.