sofer (redirected from soferim)

sofer

 or sopher

In Judaism, a scholar-teacher of the 5th–2nd centuries BC who transcribed, edited, and interpreted the Bible. The first sofer was Ezra, who, with his disciples, initiated a tradition of rabbinical scholarship that is still central in Judaism. This tradition of scholarship arose to meet the specific need of applying the idealistic aspirations of the Torah and oral tradition to everyday life, thus in effect codifying Mosaic law. The soferim were important historically for having fixed the canon of the Hebrew scriptures. Later the term sofer came to refer to one who taught the Bible to children or who was qualified to write Torah scrolls.