sofer

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Pronunciations

sofer (so-FAIR) listen

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Definitions

  • n. A scribe trained in transcribing the Torah, mezuzah, tefillin scriptures, and other religious texts on parchment.

Example Sentences

  • Of a Torah: "The letters are flaking off; we should call a sofer to fix it."

  • "These tefilin look like they got damp. You'll have to take them to a sofer to be checked." (Glinert)

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Languages of Origin

  • Textual Hebrew
  • Yiddish

Etymology

  • TH סופר sofér > Y סופֿר soyfer

      • Who Uses This

      • Religious: Jews who are engaged in religious observance and have some Jewish education

      Regions

      • North America
      • Great Britain
      • South Africa
      • Australia / New Zealand

      Dictionaries

      • Yiddish and English: A Century of Yiddish in America, by Sol Steinmetz (Tuscaloosa, 1986).
      • The JPS Dictionary of Jewish Words, by Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic, (Philadelphia, 2001).
      • The Joys of Hebrew, by Lewis Glinert (New York, 1992).
      • Dictionary of Jewish Usage: A Popular Guide to the Use of Jewish Terms, by Sol Steinmetz (Lanham, MD, 2005).
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      Alternative Spellings

      sopher, soyfer, soifer

Notes

  • plural: 'sofrim'

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