Perek

Perek, written in Hebrew as פֶּרֶק, is a noun meaning "chapter" or "section." It is derived from the root פ-ר-ק, which carries the sense of dividing or separating. In modern Hebrew, perek is the standard term for a chapter of a book, document, or other structured text.

In Jewish literary tradition, perek is used to designate a unit of text within a larger work. In the Hebrew Bible, each book is divided into chapters (perekim). The chapter divisions were added and standardized by editors in the medieval and early modern periods, and today they appear in most printed editions and Hebrew translations. Biblical references often specify a perek and verse, for example, "Genesis perek 1, verse 1."

Beyond biblical usage, perek appears in rabbinic and contemporary Hebrew to label sections within a tractate, legal code, or educational text. It functions as a generic term for a named subdivision of a work, rather than a fixed unit of length.

Perek is distinct from parashah (plural parshiyot), which denotes the weekly Torah portion and is part of a separate system of liturgical and Torah-text divisions. While both terms refer to portions of Hebrew texts, parashot are arranged for liturgical readings, whereas perek divisions model the textual structure of the work itself. In transliteration, perek may appear as perak; in English-language scholarship, it is commonly translated as "chapter."