What is Seforim?ספרים
Seforim are Jewish religious books — the plural of sefer — covering Torah, Talmud, halacha, mussar, chassidus, and the full range of sacred Jewish literature.
Also written: Sefarim, Sforim, S'farim, Sepharim
Seforim is the plural of sefer, and it is the word most often used as a category: a person has a wall of seforim, a shul has a seforim room, a family buys seforim for a bar mitzvah. The Ashkenazi pronunciation is 'seforim' and the Sephardi is 'sefarim'; both refer to exactly the same thing, and both spellings are in wide use online.
The market for used seforim is unusually active compared with secular books, for two reasons. Sets are expensive new, so buying second-hand is normal rather than a compromise. And print runs of specialised works are small, so a sefer that goes out of print may only ever be available used.
Related terms
- Sefer — A sefer is a Jewish religious book — a work of Torah, Talmud, halacha, or related sacred literature, as distinct from an ordinary secular book.
- Sifrei Kodesh — Sifrei kodesh means 'holy books' — the formal term for the body of sacred Jewish literature, used when distinguishing religious works from secular ones.
- Shas — Shas is the complete Talmud — an acronym for Shisha Sidrei Mishnah, the six orders of the Mishnah — usually sold as a multi-volume bound set.