Work of a Sofer?

What is the work of a Sofer (a Jewish Scribe)?

Jewish tradition mandates that specific writings must be copied by hand following very specific guidelines regulated by religious tradition. Sofer is Hebrew for a Jewish scribe (plural soferim). The writings copied include the Torah, phylacteries, mezuzot, the five Megillot (or Writings, Ketuvim consisting of the Song of Songs, Ruth, Esther, Ecclesiastes and Lamentations), the books of the Prophets (Nevi’im), functional documents (ketubot) such as marriage contracts (gittin) and divorce documents, and calligraphic renditions of other religious documents. Some small religious communities continue to hand-copy all of the books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh). Soferim, as well, have to make ongoing repairs to Torahs and other manuscripts to keep them in usable condition.

Sofrut is Hebrew for the practice of scribal arts. There are 613 commandments in the Torah. The second to last commandment is that every Jew should write a Torah before he dies (Deuteronomy 31:19). It is mistakenly believed by some that a sofer must be a rabbi which is not true. It is also mistakenly believed by many that the group referred to as scribes in the Gospels and the book of Acts were soferim. They were actually specialists in Jewish law. The major religious traditions (halakha) pertaining to the work of the sofer first appear in the Talmud tractate Maseket Sofrim dating to the 8th century CE. It contains rules for the preparation of the Torah and for the reading of the Torah. Thousands of rules dictate the preparation of skins, ink, the shape of letters, spacing between letters, words, sections and books and the sewing of skins. The Torah can take up to a year to copy. While a sofer may have had formal training, much of the skills are learned over years serving as an apprentice.

A study of the Salonika Torah and Haftarah will offer a better appreciation for the careful work of the sofer looking firsthand at manuscripts.