Tam, Yaʿaqov ben Meʾir

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TAM, YAʿAQOV BEN MEʾIR

TAM, YAʿAQOV BEN MEʾIR (c. 1100–1171), leading Jewish halakhic scholar, known as Rabbenu ("our teacher") Tam from the biblical description of the patriarch Jacob as tam (Gn. 25:27), a word often translated as "quiet," with the connotation of a studious, scholarly person. The scion of a learned rabbinical family, he was the grandson of Rashi (Shelomoh ben Yitsḥaq, 1042–1105), the most prominent Talmudic commentator, and the brother of Shemuʾel ben Meʾir, the Rashbam. He was himself the greatest of the founders of the Tosafist school of Talmudic commentators in the twelfth to fourteenth centuries.

In his commentaries Tam employed the method of comparative examination of the Talmudic texts, aiming to explain contradictions and inconsistencies while elucidating the passages. He was against making any corrections in the traditional text of the Talmud unless there was absolutely no other way of understanding a particular passage. His concerns encompassed practical legal and religious applications as well as a theoretical understanding of the Talmudic system. He generally opposed current usages that seemed contrary to Talmudic teachings and customs and also did not allow deviation from ancestral practices. His reasoned legal decisions were based on the Talmud itself and not on the varying needs of the time, although he sometimes resolved contradictions between the Talmud and the religious and legal practices of the day by reinterpreting the traditional texts.

Tam was accepted by his contemporaries as the greatest scholar of his generation. Many disciples flocked to study with him from France and Germany and even as far away as Italy, Bohemia, and Russia; through them, his teachings and opinions circulated throughout Europe, reaching even to Spain. Considered the central halakhic authority of the age, he received halakhic and Talmudic questions and problems from all parts of Europe. By virtue of his position he issued various regulations (taanot) for the Jewish communities of the time. Tam's responsa (answers to questions posed) and comments on the Talmud were accepted as authoritative by later generations, especially among Western (Ashkenazic) orthodox Jewry.

His main work is Sefer ha-yashar (Vienna, 1811), which includes his halakhic responsa (annotated Berlin, 1898) and his novellae, or comments, on the Talmud (annotated Jerusalem, 1959). The book as we have it is a later unedited collection from the original with additions from other authors. However, the greater part of his teachings are not included in this work but are scattered throughout the tosafot and the collections of responsa and decisions of his time.

Bibliography

No monograph on Yaʿaqov ben Meʾir Tam has appeared in English. Three important discussions of Tam's life and influence are my own "Yaḥaso shel Rabbenu Tam le-beʿayot zemano," Zion 19 (1954): 104–141; Viktor Aptowitzer's Mavoʾ le-sefer Raʾavyah (Jerusalem, 1938), pp. 357–366; and chapter 3 of E. E. Urbach's Baʿalei ha-tosafot, 4th ed. (Jerusalem, 1980).