early period, this meant reaching an accommodation with
the real rulers of the community (e.g., the Roman empire or,
in Babylonia, the allegedly Davidic dynasty of the exilarchs).
Later, it meant assuring that internal Jewish courts should
be dominated by rabbis and that Talmudic law should gov-
ern those aspects of life where Jews maintained internal au-
tonomy (marriage and divorce, religious ritual, educational
institutions). Although rabbinical authority was not without
challengers, it was never overthrown in principle until the
breakdown of Jewish self-government, which began in the
late eighteenth century and continued into the nineteenth.
TALMUD STUDY AS RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. Rabbis saw
their own teaching as “oral Torah.” They believed the con-
tents of the Talmud represented a part of the revelation to
Moses that had been kept oral but faithfully transmitted for
centuries before its inclusion in the text of the Talmud. The
name Talmud, in fact, can be understood as a short form of
the common phrase talmud Torah, or “Torah study.” Thus
to study Talmud was in fact to let oneself hear the word of
God, and to add to the accumulation of commentaries, di-
gests, codes, and the like was to make one’s own contribution
to the spread of divine revelation in the world. To learn
Torah was thus a kind of sober mysticism, a reliving of the
events at Sinai, while to add to the growing body of “oral”
law was to share in a divine activity. Already in the Talmud
God is depicted as studying Torah several hours per day (B.
T., EA. Z. 3b), but the kinship between the rabbi and God
was felt to be even stronger. By increasing the amount of
Torah in the world, the rabbi could do what previously only
God had been held able to accomplish.
Thus the text of the Talmud became the center of an
activity believed to be the most Godlike available to human
experience. Everyone (in practice this meant every male)
could study some Torah, and no one was considered incapa-
ble of adding a few original thoughts to a study session. Tal-
mud study became a widespread activity among later Jewish
communities. The degree of commitment to this activity
might vary, from the ascetic twenty-hour-per-day devotion
of the secluded scholar to one-hour-per-week popular learn-
ing on Sabbath afternoons. The climax of a boy’s education
was the point at which he was ready to learn gemaraD. Such
“learning” continues even in the present time, even after the
functioning authority of Talmudic law has all but disap-
peared. It represents the most powerful and the most durable
inheritance of classical Judaism.
SEE ALSO Biblical Exegesis, article on Jewish Views;
Halakhah; Mishnah and Tosefta.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The history and current state of critical scholarship about the two
Talmuds is comprehensively reviewed in two essays in Aufs-
tieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, vol. 2.19.2 (Berlin
and New York, 1979): Baruch M. Bokser’s “An Annotated
Bibliographical Guide to the Study of the Palestinian Tal-
mud,” pp. 139–256, and David Goodblatt’s “The Babylo-
nian Talmud,” pp. 257–336. Both have been reprinted in
The Study of Ancient Judaism, vol. 2, edited by Jacob Neusner
(New York, 1981). Several of Neusner’s students also pro-
duced longer examinations of the work of particular modern
scholars; he collected these in The Formation of the Babylo-
nian Talmud (Leiden, 1970). Readers can also consult
Strack-Stemberger, Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash
(revised edition, Minneapolis, 1992).
Neusner has also investigated the religious implications of con-
ceiving of Torah study as a holy activity and the theological
implications of rabbinic intellectuality; see his concise The
Glory of God Is Intelligence (Salt Lake City, Utah, 1978). A
more popular effort of the same sort is Morris Adler’s The
World of the Talmud (New York, 1958). See also my own
“Talmud,” in Back to the Sources, edited by Barry W. Holtz
(New York, 1984), pp. 129–175.
ROBERT GOLDENBERG (1987 AND 2005)TAM, YAEAQOV BEN MEDIR (c. 1100–1171), lead-
ing Jewish halakhic scholar, known as Rabbenu (“our teach-
er”) 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 Yitsh:aq, 1042–1105), the most prominent
Talmudic commentator, and the brother of ShemuDel ben
MeDir, 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 con-
cerns encompassed practical legal and religious applications
as well as a theoretical understanding of the Talmudic sys-
tem. He generally opposed current usages that seemed con-
trary 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 va-
rying needs of the time, although he sometimes resolved con-
tradictions 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 prob-
lems from all parts of Europe. By virtue of his position he
issued various regulations (taanot) for the Jewish communi-
ties 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.8972 TAM, YAEAQOV BEN MEDIR