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...