There are, however, some mishnayot which, from their style, seem to have emanated directly from the scribes (comp. The halakot were the work of (1) the "Zugot" (duumvirates), who immediately followed the scribes, and (2) the Tannaim, who treated the law independently of the Biblical text. Moreover, the scribes always connected with the text the laws which they deduced from the Biblical passages that is, they read the passage, explained it, and then deduced the law contained in it they did not in general formulate abstract halakot apart from the Biblical text. 8: "So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading." This passage is explained by the Rabbis as meaning that they first read the Hebrew text and then translated it into the vernacular, elucidating it still further by dividing it into passages ("pesuḳim" Meg. Their mode of teaching is indicated in Neh. It was they who established schools, and they were particularly enjoined to increase the number of their pupils (Ab. 49a).Īlthough, as will be shown later, the activity of the scribes was manifold, yet their main object was to teach the Torah to the Jewish masses, and to the Jewish youth in particular. In still later times "soferim" became synonymous with "teachers of little children" ( ib. 46a), while "soferim" was sometimes used as an honorific appellation (Soṭah 15a). It seems that after Simeon the teachers were more generally styled "elders" ("zeḳenim"), and later "the wise ones" ("ḥakamim" Shab. But as a general rule the term refers to the body of teachers the first of whom was Ezra and the last Simeon the Just. 19a, where the expression "dibre soferim" (= "the words of the scribes") seems to refer to the school of Hillel. Besides, in certain passages it is quite evident that "soferim" refers to Talmudists of a later period, as, for instance, in Yer. Thus Moses and Aaron are styled the "soferim of Israel" (Targ. It must be said, however, that the term "soferim" was sometimes used, particularly in the post-Maccabean time, to designate teachers generally. If this identification is correct, the organization of the scribes lasted from the time of Ezra till the conquest of Palestine by Alexander the Great, a period of about 200 years. 12), of which Simeon the Just was the last member (comp. xi.) with the "men of the Great Synagogue" (comp. 8) and Nachman Krochmal Moreh Nebuke ha-Zeman," ch. This body of teachers is identified by Zacharias Frankel ("Darke ha-Mishnah," p. In fact, after the Israelites who came back from Babylon had turned their hearts to God, there was greater need of men to instruct the people, and to assist them in obtaining a clear understanding of the Law. The activity of the scribes began with the cessation of that of the Prophets. While this may be only a haggadic interpretation of the term "soferim," it is evident that these scribes were the first teachers of the Torah and the founders of the oral law. The Rabbis, however, deriving from (= "to count"), interpret the term "soferim" to mean those who count the letters of the Torah or those who classify its contents and recount the number of laws or objects belonging in each group e.g., five classes of people that are exempt from the heave-offering, four chief causes of damages, thirty-nine chief works which are forbidden on the Sabbath, etc. Indeed, he might be correctly so called for two reasons, inasmuch as he could write or copy the Law and at the same time was an able interpreter of it. Ezra himself is styled "a ready scribe in the law of Moses" (Ezra vii. Later, in the time of Ezra, the designation was applied to the body of teachers who, as stated above, interpreted the Law to the people. 2, passim) but as the art of writing was known only to the intelligent, the term "scribe" became synonymous with "wise man" (I Chron. EZRA THE SCRIBE HOW TOThe original meaning of the Hebrew word "soferim" was "people who know how to write" and therefore the royal officials who were occupied in recording in the archives the proceedings of each day were called scribes (comp. Body of teachers whose office was to interpret the Law to the people, their organization beginning with Ezra, who was their chief, and terminating with Simeon the Just.
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