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The Ancient Sopherim. From the ancient world to today, scribes (Hebrew, sopherim) have played a crucial role in preserving Jewish culture. Other ancient civilizations also had scribes. But Israel’s were unique. In ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, only the scribes could read and write.
SOFERIM (Heb. סוֹפְרִים; "scribes"). Although the word soferim is identical with the biblical word translated scribes and dealt with under that heading, during the Second Temple period the word came to denote a specific class of scholars. The exact meaning and delineation of the group involved is a matter of controversy.
A sofer, sopher, sofer SeTaM, or sofer ST"M ( Hebrew: סופר סת״ם, "scribe"; plural soferim, סופרים) is a Jewish scribe who can transcribe Sifrei Kodesh (holy scrolls), tefillin (phylacteries), mezuzot ( ST"M, סת״ם, is an abbreviation of these three terms) and other religious writings.
Sofer is a Hebrew word for a Jewish scholar who interpreted and taught biblical law and ethics from about the 5th century bc to about 200 bc. The first sofer was Ezra, who initiated a tradition of rabbinic scholarship that remains to this day a fundamental feature of Judaism.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Masekhet Soferim ( Hebrew: מסכת סופרים ), the "Tractate of the Scribes", is a non-canonical 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] .
Tiqqūn sōferīm ( Hebrew: תיקון סופרים, plural תיקוני סופרים tiqqūnēi sōferīm) is a term from rabbinic literature meaning "correction/emendation of the scribes" [2] or "scribal correction" and refers to a change of wording in the Tanakh in order to preserve the honor of God or for a similar reason.
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— The period of the Sopherim begins with the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, and ends with the death of Simon the Just (B.C. cir. 458-300), embracing nearly a hundred and sixty years.
