Jewish scribes (soferim)

Ezra (fl. fifth or fourth century BCE) is the main character of the Book of Ezra. According to the Hebrew Bible, he was an important Jewish scribe (sofer) and priest (kohen) in the early Second Temple period. In the Greek Septuagint, the name is rendered as ' (), from which the Latin name Esdras comes. His name is probably a shortened Aramaic translation of the Hebrew name ('), meaning "Yah helps".

biblical figure

The Masoretes (, lit. 'Masters of the Tradition') were groups of Jewish scribe-scholars who worked from around the end of the 5th through 10th centuries AD, based primarily in the Jewish centers of the Levant (e.g., Tiberias and Jerusalem) and Mesopotamia (e.g., Sura and Nehardea). Each group compiled a system of pronunciation and grammatical guides in the form of diacritical notes (niqqud) on the external form of the text of the Hebrew Bible (the Tanakh) in an attempt to standardize its pronunciation, paragraph and verse divisions, and cantillation for the worldwide Jewish community.

thumb|A sofer at work, Ein Bokek, Israel thumb|A sofer sews together the pieces of parchment A sofer, sopher, sofer SeTaM, sofer ST"M (, "scribe"; plural , ), or soifer () is a Jewish scribe who can transcribe Sifrei Kodesh (holy scrolls), tefillin (phylacteries), mezuzot (ST"M, , is an abbreviation of these three terms) and other religious writings.

Jewish Scribe who perfected the written language

Ukrainian rabbi (1780-1844)

Hebrew scholar and geographer

assembly of Jewish sages

one of the Minor tractates

Israeli LGBT activist

thumb|Shaphan reading the law before JosiahShaphan (, which means "hyrax"), son of Azaliah, is the name of a scribe or court secretary mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible (2 Kings and ; and parallels in 2 Chronicles ; see also Jeremiah 26:24; ; 39:14; and following; and 43:6).