Tam, Jacob Ben-meir

Tam, Jacob ben-Meir better known in Jewish literature under the name of Rabenu Tam, was born at Remers, France, about 1100, and died in 1171. He was; a grandson of Rashi (q.v.), and youngest brother of Rashbam. (q.v.), and was famous not only as a. Talmudist, grammarian, and commentator, but also for his piety, for which he obtained the appellation Tam (תָּם), in allusion to Ge 25:27, where his namesake Jacob is denominated Tam=pious (יעֲקֹב אַישׁ תָּם). Under the title of ספר הישר, "the book of the righteous," he wrote additions on thirty treatises of the Talmud, published at Vienna in 1811. Supplements are given by Luzzatto from an old MS. in the Kerem Chemed (Prague, 1843), 7:19 sq.; עשר שאלות ותשובות, i.e. ten Talmudic decisions, also given by Luzzatto (loc. cit.); מחברת על משפטי הטעמי, is i.e. a poem on the Hebrew accents, consisting of forty-five stanzas, five of which were first published by Luzzatto (loc. cit.), and the whole forty-five of which appeared in the following work: סההכרעות, or grammatical and lexical animadversions, designed to reconcile the differences of Dunash ibn-Labral and Menachen ben-Saruk on points of grammar and exegesis (first published by Filipowski, Lond. 1855); תקין ספר תורה, or הלכות ס ת, or תקון סופרי, a guide for transcribing MSS. of the Bible, in MS. extant; פרושי תנ, or a grammatical commentary on the Bible, which has not yet come to light, but is quoted by commentators, lexicographers, and grammarians. R. Tam also enriched the Jewish ritual with some pieces, as the יציב פתגם (i.e. "these words are true," etc.), in the Machser Ashkenazimn and sused after the haphtarah for the second day of Pentecost. See Fürst, Bibl. Jud. 3, 406 sq.; De Rossi, Dizionario Storico (Germ. transl.), p. 306; Kitto, Cyclop. s.v.; Gratz, Gesch. d. Juden, 6:196 sq.; Braunschweiger, Gesch. d. Juden in den romanischen Staaten (Würzburg, 1865), p. 85; Geiger, Parshandatha (Leips. 1855), Vp. 24 sq.; Kalish, Hebrew Grammar (Lond. 1863), 2, 27; Zunz, Synagogale Poesie (Berlin, 1855), p. 248; id. Literaturgeschichte zur synagogalen Poesie (ibid. 1865), p. 265-267; id. Zur Literatur und Geschichte, p. 32, 109; Rapaport, in Kerem Chemed (Prague, 1843), 7:1- 3; Luzzatto, ibid. p. 19-34, 35-53; Landshuth [L.], Amude Blaabodah (עמודי העבודה) (Berlin, 1857), 1, 106 sq. (B. P.)