Masekhet Soferim (), 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.ed. S. Daniel Breslauer The seductiveness of Jewish myth: challenge or response? (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.. " Being of late and uncertain date, it is now generally printed as Talmudic addenda.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." In most modern printings of the Talmud, it is printed after tractate Horayot.
Chapters
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 Psalms 18 and II Samuel 22, and in Isaiah 36-39 and 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 Ten Commandments; the Torah reading on the Rosh Hodesh of Hanukkah; mode of writing the songs in Exodus 15, Judges 5, and Deuteronomy 32, as well as the order of reading Deuteronomy 32. 13: Method of writing the Hagiographa in general and the scroll of Esther in particular; blessings in connection with 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 ḥazzanim; individuals qualified to read the scroll of Esther; reading the other smaller scrolls; sanctity of the scroll of the Law; phylactery and 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 aggadah; manifold interpretations; scholarship of the ancient teachers; sections of the Pentateuch; chapters of the Psalms; 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 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: Nisan, the month of rejoicing; Purim and its observances; the blessings of the Torah and the Megillah at Purim; Haggadah of the Jewish Patriarchs.Müller, Masseket Soferim, etc., pp. 37 et seq.
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.Compare Blau, Zur Einleitung in die Heilige Schrift, pp. 31 et seq., Strasburg, 1894
According to Zunz, "the little work is now badly disarranged, as is shown by the confusion of the two principal themes [i.e., the preparation of scrolls, and the rituals of Torah reading and prayers], and the position and character of the aggadah."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" Zunz likewise shows the relationship existing between this work and later aggadot. This lack of system, however, is not the result of careless copying or other negligence, but is due to the nature of the tractate's redaction; for it is a composite of at least three works, and the systematic order of the earlier part has evidently been disarranged by interpolations. In its present form the tractate is intended more for Torah readers and 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;Edited by Raphael Kirchheim 1851 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 Masoretic rules for writing; the first four paragraphs of chapter 6 and some passages of chapter 9 are of early date. This portion was undoubtedly added by Masoretes of Tiberias; and the main portion of the modern Masorah, which also contains the passages in question, likewise originated in the same school. The first two parts of Soferim are acknowledged to be 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 Torah reading, together with liturgical laws. It is not a uniform composition, although the first section (chapters 10–15) is concerned almost entirely with the sequence of Torah readings, while the remaining part (chapters 16–21) contains liturgical laws. The contents of 16:1 apparently form the conclusion of the portion of the work which precedes it. The third part of Soferim is likewise Judean in origin, as is shown by its sources; nor is this view contradicted by the phrases "our teachers in the West" (רבותינו שבמערב, 10:8) and "the people of the East and the people of the West" (בני מזרח ובני מערב at 10,end; 13:10), since either a Palestinian or a 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 Babylonian Talmud, mentioning the "teachers of the land of Israel" (no longer מערב, as in 21:1) in 17:4, and speaking of the Nazarenes (נוצרים = Christians) in 17:6, while a passage from Pirkei De-Rabbi EliezerPirkei De-Rabbi Eliezer 17,end is cited on the authority of R. Eliezer b. Hyrcanus (19:12). These peculiarities indicate that its date is relatively late, even though these last passages are in the main also 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 customs of Jerusalem are also mentioned (18:5, 21:6) in a way which indicates an acquaintance with them and points to an author who may have been from Tiberias, but was not from Jerusalem. The names of the school, teachers, and countries also confirm this view. Hai Gaon knew nothing of the liturgical observance mentioned in 19:11Müller, l.c. p. 277, note 67 The controversy regarding the mode of reading (21:7) is taken from the Jerusalem Talmud,Taanit 4:3, end, and Megillah 4:2 not from the parallel passage in the Babylonian Talmud.Megillah 22a, where Rav and Samuel of Nehardea discuss the same question. The long passage which follows is a direct quotation from the Jerusalem Talmud. The Babylonian amora Rav Yosef is designated as "Rabbi," and not as "Rav" (13:7) The assumption that there are weekly sections which do not contain 21 verses (11:4) applies only to the triennial cycle of the Land of Israel Soferim 13:3-5 parallels the Jerusalem Talmud, Megillah 3:7 (74b).
The hypothesis that Soferim is based on Palestinian sources agrees with the ancient tradition (Nahmanides and others) that all the small tractates are Palestinian in origin;Orient, 1851, p. 218 and modern scholars, except for I.H. Weiss, also accept this view.J.L. Rapoport, in Kerem Ḥemed, vi. 247; Zunz, G. V. 2d ed., p. 322; 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 There were scholars in Palestine even after the final redaction of Jerusalem Talmud,Zunz, l.c. p. 322, note a and the Bible was still the chief subject of study.
Date of composition