Find the word definition

Crossword clues for sofer

Wiktionary
sofer

n. A Jewish scribe who can transcribe Torah scrolls and other religious writings.

Wikipedia
Sofer (disambiguation)

Sofer can refer to:

  • A sofer is a ritual scribe in Judaism.
  • Soferet (film), a documentary about Aviel Barclay, a female scribe

People named Sofer:

  • Chaim Sofer (1821-1886) Hungarian rabbi
  • Jekuthiel Sofer, an 18th-century Jewish scribe from Amsterdam
  • Moses Sofer, a rabbi, also known by the name of his most famous work the Chatam Sofer

:* Samuel Benjamin Sofer, his son, a 19th century rabbi also known as the Ktav Sofer

  • Rena Sofer, an actress.
  • Rube John Sofer, a character played by Mandy Patinkin in the American television series Dead Like Me
  • Yaakov Chaim Sofer, 19th century Iraqi rabbi and author of Kaf HaChaim
  • Yehoshua Sofer is an Israeli martial artist
  • Abraham Sofaer (1896–1988), a stage actor
  • Abraham David Sofaer (b. 1938), a federal judge for the United States District Court
Sofer

A Sofer, Sopher, Sofer SeTaM, or Sofer ST"M ( Heb: "scribe", ) is a Jewish scribe who can transcribe sifrei Torah, tefillin and mezuzot, and other religious writings. (ST"M, , is an abbreviation of these three terms. The plural of sofer is "soferim" .)

By simple definition, a sofer is a copyist, but the religious role in Judaism is much more. Besides sifrei Torah, tefillin, and mezuzot, scribes are also necessary to write the Five Megillot (scrolls of the Song of Songs, Book of Ruth, Book of Esther, Ecclesiastes, and Book of Lamentations), Nevi'im (the books of the prophets, used for reading the haftarah), and for gittin, divorce documents. Also, many scribes function as calligraphers—writing functional documents such as ketubot "marriage contracts", or ornamental and artistic renditions of religious texts, which do not require any scribal qualifications and to which the rules on lettering and parchment specifications do not apply.

The major halakha pertaining to sofrut, the practice of scribal arts, is in the Talmud in the tractate " Maseket Sofrim". In the Torah's 613 commandments, the second to last is that every Jew should write a Sefer Torah in their lifetime. If the Scribe made a mistake, he had to start the sheet all over again.