Soferim (Talmud)

[4] 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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."

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 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;[11] and modern scholars, except for I.H.

The evidence of all these facts makes it very probable that this tractate was finally redacted about the middle of the 8th century, an assumption which is supported by the statement of Rabbeinu Asher[14] that Soferim was composed at a late date.

At that period written prayer-books were doubtless in existence and were probably produced by the scribes, who combined the offices of communal chazzan and reader.

Both the form and the content of those passages in which authorities are not mentioned point to a Judean origin; they may have been derived from the lost portions of Yerushalmi and various midrashic works, which, indeed, they may be regarded as in part replacing.

As the substance of the tractate has been incorporated in later works on orthography, the Masorah, and the liturgy, only a few points peculiar to it need be mentioned here.

Even if that be true, however, this is still the first reference to colored parchment for synagogal scrolls; for nothing else could be implied by these words in the received reading.