Sofer

A sofer, sopher, sofer SeTaM, or sofer ST"M (סופר סת״ם, "scribe"; plural of is , סופרים) is a Jewish scribe who can transcribe Sifrei Kodesh (holy scrolls), tefillin (phylacteries), mezuzot (ST"M, סת״ם, is an abbreviation of these three terms) and other religious writings. By simple definition, soferim are copyists, but their religious role in Judaism is much more. Besides sifrei Torah, tefillin, and mezuzot, scribes are necessary to write the Five Megillot (scrolls of the Song of Songs, Book of Ruth, Book of Esther, Ecclesiastes, and Book of Lamentations), Nevi'im (the books of the prophets, used for reading the haftarah), and for , divorce documents. Many scribes also function as calligraphers—writing functional documents such as (marriage contracts), or ornamental and artistic renditions of religious texts, which do not require any scribal qualifications, and to which the rules on lettering and parchment specifications do not apply. The major halakha pertaining to , the practice of scribal arts, is in the Talmud in the tractate "Maseket Sofrim". In the Torah's 613 commandments, the second to last is that every Jew should write a sefer Torah before they die. A sofer must be religiously observant, of good character, and knowledgeable about the laws concerning sofrut. It is a common misconception that one has to be a rabbi in order to become a sofer. People who want to become ritual scribes usually learn from another expert scribe by undergoing (apprenticeship), since it would be impossible for someone to be a scribe without any actual practice. Newly certified scribes write Megilat Esther scrolls. The hardest part about learning to be a sofer is not the calligraphy, but, rather, remembering the thousands of laws that apply to sifrei Torah, tefillin, mezuzot, and all the other texts that are written on parchment.