What is "soferim"

n. (plural of sofer English)

Masekhet Soferim "The Tractate of the Scribes" ( Hebrew: מסכת סופרים) is a non-canonical Talmudic treatise dealing especially with the rules relating to the preparation of the holy books, as well as with the regulations for the reading of the Law.

It belongs to the so-called " smaller tractates," a term applied to about 15 works in rabbinical literature, each containing all the important material bearing on a single subject. While they are mishnaic in form and are called "treatises," the topics discussed in them are arranged more systematically; for they are eminently practical in purpose, being, in a certain sense, the first manuals in which the data scattered through prolix sources have been collected in a brief and comprehensive form.