(Jacob ben Meir; 1100-1171). The most distinguished of the French Tosafists (see Tosafot). Rabbenu ("our master") Tam was given the name on account of his piety and erudition, after the rabbinic interpretation of Genesis 25:27: "Jacob was a scholarly man (tam) dwelling in tents." A wine merchant and financier, he was almost killed by Crusaders during the Second Crusade, his life being saved by a passing nobleman who promised the mob that he would convert him to Christianity. The son of Rashi's daughter and her husband, Meir ben Samuel, Tam studied under his father, his brother Samuel Ben Meir (Rashbam), and Jacob ben Samson, Rashi's pupil. He headed the rabbinical academy (yeshivah) in his birthplace of Ramerupt. Tam was recognized as the greatest scholar of the age, and halakhic questions were directed to him from all parts of the world. At one time more than 80 Tosafists enrolled at his academy, attended by the best scholars of the generation.
R. Tam's explanations pervade the tosafot on the Babylonian Talmud. His main work, Sefer ha-Yashar, also contains tosafot and decisions as well as Responsa. Wherever possible he gives lenient decisions within the framework of the Halakhah. Unlike his brother Samuel ben Meir, R. Tam was strongly opposed to emending the talmudic text, which he always attempted to justify.
The author of liturgical poems, R. Tam corresponded in rhyme with Abraham Ibn Ezra. He approved the introduction of piyyutim (liturgical poems) into the liturgy, not regarding them as interruptions of the prayers. As a result of his dispute with his grandfather Rashi on the order of the four biblical sections placed in the Tefillin, some pious Jews to this day put on two pairs of tefillin, one pair with the order of the sections according to the opinion of Rashi and the other with the order of the sections according to the opinion of Rabbenu Tam.
