![]() ![]() 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. The 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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