Soferim (Talmud) - Contents of The Work - Ch. I.-ix.

Ch. I.-ix.

• Ch. i.: On parchment and other writing-material; language, and translation of the Jewish Scriptures; the Septuagint; persons who are qualified to prepare books; leaves and pages; open and closed paragraphs.
• Ch. ii.: Spaces between letters, words, lines, pages, and books; space-lines; number of columns to the leaf, and lines to the column; width and height of the scrolls; rollers; sewing; mending; final letters.
• Ch. iii.: Writing several books on a single scroll; verse-marks in the scroll of the Law; superscriptions; palimpsests; procedure in regard to incorrectly written scrolls; rolling and unrolling; manner of rolling and reading; respectful handling of the scroll of the Law; careful use of food as a gift of God.
• Ch. iv.: The names of God and the interdiction against erasing them; Masoretic enumeration of such names; the sinfulness of profanely using any of them.
• Ch. v.: Sacrosanct writing of the names of God; scribal errors in such and in the lines of the sacred scroll; the Divine Name on vessels and utensils; preservation of scrolls and other writings which have become useless; use of loaned writings.
• Ch. vi.: Points and the in the Torah; textual variations in the ancient scrolls used in the Temple at Jerusalem; Masoretic textual and orthographical variants.
• Ch. vii. Masoretic combination of the "ḳere" and "ketib."
• Ch. viii.: Textual variants in Ps. xviii. and II Sam. xxii., and in Isa. xxxvi.-xxxix. and II Kings xviii.-xx. Ch. ix.: Capital letters in the Torah; written words for which others must be substituted in reading; passages which are neither read nor translated.