society
scribe
At a glance
In short
Both words mean scribe, and Rashi uses each to define the other. Sofer is the Hebrew word, at home in Tanach and in the Mishnah; lavlar is the later term, found in Mishnaic and Talmudic Hebrew and borrowed from Latin. Whether they differ in meaning is disputed. For Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Blau, a sofer is an official scribe holding a bureaucratic post and lavlar a general term that takes in even the freelance clerk; for Rabbi Shmuel Krauss the two are effectively synonymous, though lavlar may have carried a somewhat more formal connotation. In the plural, sofrim in rabbinic usage is often the Sofrim, the early Sages, rather than "scribes."
Distinctions
Sofer (סופר)
Root ס-פ-ר, a root that carries a wide range of senses: book, story, to tell or relate, number, to count, sapphire, spherical, haircut, border, and more. At its plainest a sofer is one who produces a sefer. Professor Raymond P. Dougherty of Yale explains how the word grows out of the core meaning "to count": counting is primarily a mental process, but memory is fallible, so there must be recourse to a written tally or record, and from these secondary meanings sofer came to mean scribe and sefer a record, letter or book. The word appears more than fifty times in Tanach, often of royal scribes who wrote down the king's decisions for circulation to the people. Devorah's song praises the tribe of Zevulun with "and from Zevulun, those who pull the quill of the sofer" (Shoftim 5:14).
In Tanach it is both a common noun (Tehillim 45:2, Yirmiyahu 8:8, Yechezkel 9:2-3) and an appellation with the definite article attached to a particular man: Seraya (Shmuel II 8:17), Shemayah (Divrei HaYamim I 24:6), Shva (Shmuel II 20:25, and see Divrei HaYamim I 18:16), Shevna (Melachim II 18:18, 18:37, 19:2; Yeshayahu 36:3, 37:2), Shafan (Melachim II 22:3, 22:8-10, 22:12; Yirmiyahu 36:10; Divrei HaYamim II 34:15, 34:18, 34:20), Elishama (Yirmiyahu 36:12, 36:20-21), Baruch (Yirmiyahu 36:26), Yonasan (Yirmiyahu 37:15, 37:20), Ezra (Ezra 7:6, 7:11; Nechemyah 8:1-13, 12:26, 12:36), Tzadok (Nechemyah 13:13), and Ye'iel (Divrei HaYamim II 26:11).
In the Mishnah sofer is the working scribe (Shabbos 12:5, Pesachim 3:1, Gittin 3:1, 7:2, 8:8, 9:8, Bava Metzia 5:11, Sanhedrin 4:3, 5:5, Keilim 24:6, and see Nedarim 9:2), while the plural sofrim is often used of the earlier Sages (Orlah 3:9, Yevamos 2:4, 9:3, Sotah 9:15, Kiddushin 4:13, Sanhedrin 11:3, Keilim 13:7, Parah 11:5-6, Taharos 4:7, 4:11, Tevul Yom 4:6, Yadayim 3:2). One Tanna does carry the appellation, Rabbi Yeshevav HaSofer, though it is not attached to his name in either Talmud but only in later sources: Midrash Shocher Tov to Tehillim 9, Iggeres Rav Sherira Gaon, and the Eileh Ezkerah kinah for the Ten Martyrs.
But Chazal read the word from the "counting" sense of the root.
- The Gemara (Kiddushin 30a, Chagigah 15b, Yerushalmi Berachos 1:4) teaches that sofer literally means one who counts, and the early Sages are called sofrim because they counted the letters of the Torah. Rabbi Klein suggests, tentatively, that this may perhaps allude to a scribal practice attested among the later Masoretes, who used numbers to help fix the most accurate text of Tanach and to check their own work, and that perhaps the early Sages did something similar as guardians of the Written Torah.
- The Yerushalmi (Shekalim 5:1) gives a second account of the same title: they "counted" in the sense of drawing up numbered lists as a memory aid for involved halachos, and every example is a Mishnah that opens with a tally: five who may not separate terumah (Terumos 1:1), five grains obligated in challah (Challah 1:1), fifteen women who exempt their co-wives from yibum (Yevamos 1:1), thirty-six sins punishable by kares (Kerisus 1:1), thirteen rules said about an unslaughtered kosher bird (Taharos 1:1), four avos nezikin (Bava Kamma 1:1), thirty-nine melachos of Shabbos (Shabbos 7:2). On this reading the Sages took a scribal habit and applied it to Torah she'be'al peh.
The Gemara (Pesachim 3b) names a man Chakuka'ah. Rabbeinu Chananel, as Tosafos there brings him, explains it as a scribe; the Ri, in the same Tosafos, takes it to mean a man from a town named in Yehoshua 19.
Lavlar (לבלר)
Not a word of Tanach. It appears three times in the Mishnah: in the name Nachum HaLavlar (Peah 2:6), who was apparently a scribe; in the rule that a lavlar may not go out with his writing quill close to the onset of Shabbos (Shabbos 1:3); and in a man contracting a lavlar to write a get for his wife (Gittin 3:1). Scholars agree it is a loanword, from the Late Latin libellarius ("scribe"), which comes in turn from libellus, itself a diminutive of liber/libri, book. It could well be that the rabbis took the word through its Greek form liblarios (also spelled libellavrio or liblavrio) rather than straight from the Latin. The same family survives in English: libel, which originally meant a small book before it came to mean an accusatory statement; library, from the Latin librarius, itself from liber; and leaf in the sense of a page, whose plural leaves shows the connection. Modern linguists trace all of them to the Proto-Indo-European root leup/leub/leubh.
That the two words are used interchangeably shows in three places. Rashi defines each by the other (Sotah 20a, Gittin 67a, Bava Basra 21b). The Mishnah's ruling that a sofer who writes up a loan on interest transgresses along with the lender (Bava Metzia 5:11) is repeated in the Tosefta (Bava Metzia 6:17) with lavlar in its place. And while Targum normally renders sofer by the Aramaicized safra, Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur notes in Meturgeman that in one place (Targum to Esther 3:12) it renders sofer as lavlar. Whether that settles the meaning is the open question set out above.
On the vowels: the popular lavlar, for all that prominent works use it, looks to be a mispronunciation. The Kaufmann manuscript of the Mishnah, the earliest vocalized one, reads livlar, and the Yerushalmi (Gittin 3:1, Bava Metzia 1:4) spells the word with a yud after the lamed, suggesting a chirik rather than a patach. Rabbi Klein finds this somewhat similar to Bisyah (Divrei HaYamim I 4:18) and Milkah (Bereishis 11:29 and elsewhere), pointed in Tanach with a chirik under the first letter yet somehow become Basyah and Malkah with a patach. He also allows the possibility that the rabbis altered the pronunciation on purpose in taking the word over, so as to say lavlar rather than libler or something nearer the foreign original.
The shape of the two words
The Hebrew and the Latin words for a scribe are built alike, each on its own language's word for a book (sofer and sefer, libellarius and liber). The Germanic languages do it differently, building their word for a scribe on the verb "to write": English scribe, Yiddish and German schreiber, neither cognate with the word for a book. The Germanic form has a bevy of English relatives (scrivener, scribble, describe, transcribe, prescribe, subscribe, ascribe, inscribe, proscribe, serif, script, manuscript). Among the countless descendants of Rabbi Moshe Sofer, author of the Chasam Sofer, some branches carry the surname Sofer and others the surname Schreiber, which mean exactly the same thing, one in Hebrew and one in Yiddish.
Where the authorities disagree
Do sofer and lavlar mean two different things? The etymological difference is clear (sofer and safra are Hebrew and Aramaic, of Semitic stock; lavlar is borrowed from Latin and Greek, of Indo-European stock). The earliest sources Rabbi Klein found discussing the question are two Hungarian rabbinic scholars of the last century.
- Two distinct groups. Rabbi Dr. Yehuda Aryeh (Lajos) Blau, in his German Studien zum althebräischen Buchwesen und zur Biblischen Litteratur- und Textgeschichte, argues that sofer implies an official scribe holding a specific bureaucratic post, while lavlar is a general term taking in even the run-of-the-mill scribe who worked as a sort of freelance clerk. On his reading every sofer is a lavlar, but not every lavlar is a sofer.
- Effectively synonymous. Rabbi Dr. Shmuel Krauss, in Talmudische Archäologie, cites Blau and disagrees with him: the two terms come to the same thing, though the loanword lavlar may have carried a somewhat more formal connotation.
Also discussed in
Radak on this root
Sefer HaShorashim
ס-פ-ר
To count; to tell; and to write, a סֵפֶר being a book and a סֹפֵר a scribe. In another sense, סַפִּיר, a stone the authorities identify differently.
Counting
סָפַר אֶת הָעָם (Shmuel II 24:10), he counted the people, and וְסָפַרְתָּ לְךָ (Vayikra 25:8), you shall count for yourself. אַיֵּה סֹפֵר אַיֵּה שֹׁקֵל (Yeshayahu 33:18), where is he who counted, where is he who weighed, he explains: you will still fear, even though Melech HaMashiach has already come, and your heart will still muse on the terror of the kings of the nations, who counted and weighed the silver they took from Yisrael as tax, or counted Yisrael by the head and took the tax from them by weight. The nouns are מִסְפַּר, a number, and הַסְּפָר, the count itself, whose plural he gives as בִּינֹתִי בַּסְּפָרִים (Daniel 9:2), I understood by the counts. His father files that pasuk under writing, and on that reading the סְפָרִים are the deed of purchase and the open deed that Yirmiyahu wrote. The adjective is in כִּי לֹא יָדַעְתִּי סְפֹרוֹת (Tehillim 71:15), for I do not know סְפֹרוֹת: it describes the righteousness and the salvation the pasuk has just named, I did not know that they could be counted; or its singular is סְפוֹרָה, and the sense is that I do not know numbers for them.
Telling
In the sense of telling and relating, ספור and הגדה, the verb always takes the heavy form: סַפְּרוּ נָא לִי (Bereishis 40:8), tell it to me. That form can still mean counting, as אֲסַפֵּר כָּל עַצְמוֹתָי (Tehillim 22:18), I count all my bones, from how lean I have grown. The difference between telling and relating he sets out under נָגַד.
Writing
The sense of all of these, he says, is writing: סֵפֶר, a book or a written document, and סֹפֵר, a scribe, as בָּרוּךְ בֶּן נֵרִיָּהוּ הַסֹּפֵר (Yirmiyahu 36:32), Baruch son of Neriyahu the scribe. לֹא יָדַעְתִּי סֵפֶר (Yeshayahu 29:12) he glosses: I do not know how to read it. Among them are נֹדִי סָפַרְתָּה אָתָּה (Tehillim 56:9), You have recorded my wandering, and יִסְפֹּר בִּכְתוֹב עַמִּים (Tehillim 87:6), Hashem shall record in the writing of the peoples. Some take those two in the second sense, telling; the two senses lie close, since writing a book is itself the telling of the matter. And זֶה סֵפֶר תּוֹלְדֹת אָדָם (Bereishis 5:1), this is the סֵפֶר of the generations of Adam, can be read as a word of telling.
Three readings of Iyov 38:37
מִי יְסַפֵּר שְׁחָקִים בְּחָכְמָה (Iyov 38:37), who in wisdom יְסַפֵּר the skies, is read three ways, and he does not choose. Some take it from the sense he has just named, telling. Rabbi Yonah takes it from writing. Radak's father takes it from סַפִּיר: on that reading He made them like sapphire, as in וְתַחַת רַגְלָיו כְּמַעֲשֵׂה לִבְנַת הַסַּפִּיר (Shemos 24:10), and under His feet like the work of a sapphire brick.
What a sapphire is
Which stone it is he leaves open. Some say the precious stone called zafir in the vernacular, and if so, the comparison in סַפִּיר גִּזְרָתָם (Eichah 4:7), their form was sapphire, is one of worth and greatness and not of appearance, since a man is praised for his appearance only by redness or whiteness. Ibn Ezra says it is a precious red stone. The Gaon says it is white, the one called crystal. And the Midrash in Eichah Rabbah tells of a man who went to sell a sapphire in Rome: the buyer set it on an anvil and struck it with a hammer, and the anvil split and the hammer broke while the stone stood where it was. By that midrash, he says, it is the diamond, white and clear.
אַֽחֲרֵי־כֵן סָפַר אֶת־הָעָם (שמואל ב' כד, י), וְסָֽפְרָה־לָּהּ שִׁבְעַת יָמִים (ויקרא טו, כח), וְסָֽפַרְתָּ לְךָ (ויקרא כה, ח), שִׁבְעָה שָֽׁבֻעֹת תִּסְפָּר־לָךְ (דברים טז, ט). אַיֵּה סֹפֵר אַיֵּה שֹׁקֵל אַיֵּה סֹפֵר אֶת־הַמִּגְדָּלִֽים (ישעיה לג, יח), כלומר שתירא ותפחד עדיין אף על פי שכבר בא מלך המשיח עדיין יהגה לבך אימה ממלכי האומות שהם סופרים ושוקלים הכסף שהיו לוקחים מס מישראל או שהיו סופרים לישראל לגלגלת ולוקחים המס מהם במשקל. סִפְרוּ מִגְדָּלֶֽיהָ (תהלים מח, יג). והנפעל אֲשֶׁר לֹֽא־יִסָּֽפְרוּ וְלֹא יִמָּנוּ מֵרֹֽב (מלכים א' ח, ה). והשם בתוספת מ"ם אֶת־מִסְפַּר יָמֶיךָ אֲמַלֵּֽא (שמות כג, כו). ובלא תוספת אַֽחֲרֵי הַסְּפָר אֲשֶׁר סְפָרָם דָּוִיד (דברי הימים ב' ב, טז). והקבוץ ממנו בִּינֹתִי בַּסְּפָרִים (דניאל ט, ב). והשם בענין המקור וּמִסְפָּר אֶת־רֹבַע יִשְׂרָאֵל (במדבר כג, י), כלומר ולספור רובע ישראל, כי הוא קמוץ ואיננו סמוך, ועוד מלת אֶת מורה על שאיננו סמוך, אם כן הנכון בו שיהיה שם במקום מקור כמו וּלְמַסַּע אֶת־הַֽמַּֽחֲנֽוֹת (במדבר י, ב). והתאר כִּי לֹא יָדַעְתִּי סְפֹרֽוֹת (תהלים עא, טו), והוא תאר לצדקתך ותשועתך שהזכיר אמר לא ידעתי שיוכלו להיות ספורות. או יהיה יחידה סְפוֹרָה בשקל בְּשֹוֹרָה, כלומר לא ידעתי להם מספרים. ענין הכל והדומה להם מנין. ובא פעל הכבד [פִּעֵל] מזה הענין אֲסַפֵּר כָּל־עַצְמוֹתָי (תהלים כב, יח), פירוש אמנה כל עצמותי מרוב כחשותי. סִפַּרְתִּי כֹּל מִשְׁפְּטֵי־פִֽיךָ (תהלים קיט, יג), סַפֵּר אַתָּה לְמַעַן תִּצְדָּֽק (ישעיה מג, כו), סַפְּרוּ־נָא לִֽי (בראשית מ, ח). ושלא נזכר פעלו [פֻּעַל] אֲשֶׁר לֹֽא־סֻפַּר לָהֶם (ישעיה נב, טו). והשם אֶת־מִסְפַּר הַֽחֲלוֹם וְאֶת־שִׁבְרוֹ (שופטים ז, טו), כלם והדומה להם ענין ספור והגדה [וכבר כתבנו בשרש נָגַד ההפרש שיש בין ספור להגדה]. וזה הענין לעולם מהבנין הכבד הדגוש. ויש מפרשים מזה הענין מִֽי־יְסַפֵּר שְׁחָקִים בְּחָכְמָה (איוב לח, לז). והחכם רבי יונה פירשו מענין כתיבה. ואדוני אבי ז"ל פירשו מענין סַפִּיר רוצה לומר שעשאם כעין ספיר כמו שאמר וְתַחַת רַגְלָיו כְּמַֽעֲשֵׂה לִבְנַת הַסַּפִּיר (שמות כד, י). וכן פירש מזה אָז רָאָהּ וַיְסַפְּרָהּ (איוב כח, כז). וָֽאֶכְתֹּב בַּסֵּפֶר (ירמיה לב, י), בחמש נקדות. בְּסֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת (דברים כח, סא), אֶל־יוֹדֵעַ הסֵפֶר [סֵפֶר] (ישעיה כט, יא), כְּבֹא הַסֵּפֶר הַזֶּה אֲלֵיכֶם (מלכים ב' י, ב), לֹא יָדַעְתִּי סֵֽפֶר (ישעיה כט, יב), לא ידעתי לקראו. מִֽסִּפְרְךָ אֲשֶׁר כָּתָֽבְתָּ (שמות לב, לב). וכתב אדוני אבי ז"ל מזה בִּינֹתִי בַּסְּפָרִים (דניאל ט, ב), והם ספר המקנה וספר הגלוי שכתב ירמיהו. ובה"א הנקבה סִפְרָה, ועם הכנוי הֲלֹא בְּסִפְרָתֶֽךָ (תהלים נו, ט). בָּרוּךְ בֶּן־נֵֽרִיָּהוּ הַסֹּפֵר (ירמיה לו, לב), וַיִּקָּרְאוּ סֹפְרֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ (אסתר ג, יב), נֹדִי סָפַרְתָּה אָתָּה (תהלים נו, ט), י"י יִסְפֹּר בִּכְתוֹב עַמִּים (תהלים פז, ו). ענין הכל והדומה להם ענין כתיבה. וּֽלֲלְמְּדָם סֵפֶר וּלְשׁוֹן כַּשְׂדִּֽים (דניאל א, ד), פירוש כתיבת כשדים ולשון כשדים. ויש מפרשים נֹדִי סָפַרְתָּה אָתָּה, י"י יִסְפּוֹר מענין השני. ושני הענינים קרובים כי כתיבת הספר הוא סיפור הדברים. ויש לפרש זֶה סֵפֶר תּֽוֹלְדֹת אָדָם (בראשית ה, א), לשון ספור. וענין אחר נֹפֶךְ סַפִּיר וְיָֽהֲלֹֽם (שמות לט, יא), כְּמַֽעֲשֵׂה לִבְנַת הַסַּפִּיר (שמות כד, י), סַפִּיר גִּזְרָתָֽם (איכה ד, ז), יש מפרשים האבן היקרה שקורין לו בלע"ז צפי"ר, ואם כן הוא אין והערך אליו במראה אלא ביקר וגדולה כמו המסולאים בפז כי לא יערכו האדם לשבח במראה אלא באודם או בלובן. והחכם רבי אברהם אבן עזרא פירש כי היא אבן אדומה יקרה כמו שכתבנו בשרש לָבֵן. והגאון פירש כי הספיר לבן. ואמר שהוא שקורין בלע"ז קרישֹט"ל. ובמדרש (איכה רבתי א"ב רביעאה) מעשה באדם אחד שהלך למכור ספיר ברומי אמר לו הלוקח על מנת לבדקו אקחנו נתנו על גבי הסדין והתחיל מכה עליו בפטיש נבקע הסדן ונחלק הפטיש והספיר עמד במקומו ולפי זה המדרש היא האבן שקורין לה דיאמנט"י והיא לבנה וזכה.
Radak, Sefer HaShorashim, Berlin 1847. Public domain, digitised by Sefaria from the National Library of Israel.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Bishalach: Scribal Culture," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 4 February 2023.
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Between Books and Scrolls," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 19 February 2022.
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Scribes to Count On," What's in a Word? Synonyms in the Hebrew Language (book manuscript).
Cited in the essay: Bereishis 11:29; Shoftim 5:14; Shmuel II 8:17, 20:25; Melachim II 18:18, 18:37, 19:2, 22:3, 22:8-10, 22:12; Yeshayahu 36:3, 37:2; Yirmiyahu 8:8, 36:10, 36:12, 36:20-21, 36:26, 37:15, 37:20; Yechezkel 9:2-3; Tehillim 45:2; Esther 3:12 with Targum; Ezra 7:6, 7:11; Nechemyah 8:1-13, 12:26, 12:36, 13:13; Divrei HaYamim I 4:18, 18:16, 24:6; Divrei HaYamim II 26:11, 34:15, 34:18, 34:20; Mishnah Peah 2:6, Terumos 1:1, Orlah 3:9, Challah 1:1, Shabbos 1:3, 7:2, 12:5, Pesachim 3:1, Yevamos 1:1, 2:4, 9:3, Nedarim 9:2, Sotah 9:15, Gittin 3:1, 7:2, 8:8, 9:8, Kiddushin 4:13, Bava Kamma 1:1, Bava Metzia 5:11, Sanhedrin 4:3, 5:5, 11:3, Kerisus 1:1, Keilim 13:7, 24:6, Parah 11:5-6, Taharos 1:1, 4:7, 4:11, Tevul Yom 4:6, Yadayim 3:2; Tosefta Bava Metzia 6:17; Kiddushin 30a; Chagigah 15b; Yerushalmi Berachos 1:4, Shekalim 5:1, Gittin 3:1, Bava Metzia 1:4; Rashi to Sotah 20a, Gittin 67a, Bava Basra 21b; Midrash Shocher Tov to Tehillim 9; Iggeres Rav Sherira Gaon; the kinah Eileh Ezkerah; Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur, Meturgeman; the Kaufmann manuscript of the Mishnah; Rabbi Dr. Yehuda Aryeh (Lajos) Blau, Studien zum althebräischen Buchwesen und zur Biblischen Litteratur- und Textgeschichte; Rabbi Dr. Shmuel Krauss, Talmudische Archäologie; Professor Raymond P. Dougherty; Pesachim 3b with Tosafos.