Sefer (Hebrew)

Sefer (ספר‎) in Hebrew means any kind of book or written document (plural ספרים‎ s'farim).[1] It is derived from the same Semitic root as sofer ("scribe"), sifriyah ("library") and safrut ("literature").

The word sefer contains in it the same root as the one used for mispar, which means a number.

Common use

Among Orthodox Jews the word is used for books both of the Tanakh, the Oral Torah (Mishnah and Talmud) or any work of rabbinic literature. Works unrelated to Torah study are rarely called sefer by English-speaking Orthodox Jews. Among Hebrew-speaking Ashkenazi Jews, the differentiation between books related to Torah study and other books is made by referring to the former with traditional Ashkenazi pronunciation (SEY-fur) and to the latter with Modern Hebrew pronunciation (SEF-fer).


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gollark: The two-dimensional compass model is inaccurate. Political leanings can only be represented accurately using my 6-dimensional hypercube.
gollark: What do you mean green quarter? Libleft?
gollark: It's been up 3 months, and apparently does something with port 9000.
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See also

References
  1. Brown Driver Briggs


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