power of combination, such, as appeared only again in the last century in the persons of R. Yehonathan Eybenschütz (ob. 1764) and R. Yeḥezkel Landau (ob. 1793). Let us add that he was a lexicographer, grammarian, and Biblical commentator of no mean order; that he was a poet in Hebrew and Aramaic[1] inferior only to Ibn Gebirol (Avicebron, q.v.) Mosheh Ibn ‘Ezra, and Yehudah Hallevi (and by far greater in this art than the commentator Abraham Ibn ‘Ezra); that he was held in high esteem by prince and nobles;[2] and that he was a man of great wealth, with which he generously supported, not merely his own poorer hearers, but other itinerant scholars also.[3]
His works are the following:—
(1) Commentary on Job, and, no doubt, on other parts of the Bible (see Camb. Univ. Lib. MS. Dd. 8. 53, leaves lb, 4a, 11a, 12b). All these are apparently now lost. (2) Hakhra'oth, i.e., lexical and grammatical decisions between Menaḥem Ibn Seruḳ and Dunash b. Labrat (see Sephcr Teshuboth Dunash b. Labrat, Edinburgh, 1885, 8vo). That these "decisions" are really by Rabbenu Tham is proved by the before-named MS., leaves 10a and 16a, where the book is quoted by an author of the 13th century. (3) Sepher Hayyashar (Vienna, 1810, folio). Although this work, in its present form, is the compilation of one of Rabbenu Tham's disciples, R. Yiṣḥak b. Durbal by name (also called Isaac of Russia; see Schiller-Szinessy, Catalogue, i. p. 164, and ii. p. 66), not only is the foundation Rabbenu Tham’s (see Preface), but the contents also are virtually his. Compare the Cambridge MS. Add. 667. 1, passim. (4) The greater part of the Tosaphoth in the Babylonian Talmud are indirectly also by Rabbenu Tham; and he is virtually the first Tosaphist. It is true that his father, his brother Rashbam (q.v.), and his uncle Rabbenu Yehudah b. Nathan had written Tosaphoth before him, and that this kind of literary activity lasted to within the first quarter of the 14th century. Still, most and the best of the Tosaphoth now in our hands rest on Rabbenu Tham and his school. (5) Mahzor, i.e., a prayer-book, &c., for the whole year, with Rabbinic ordinances, &c. See Tosaphoth on T. B., Berakhoth, leaf 37a, catchword הכוםם, and Birckhoth Maharam of R. Meir b. Barukh of Rothenburg (Riva di Trento, 1558, 8vo), leaf 4a. (6) Poems. These are partly didactic and partly liturgical. Of the former kind a specimen will be found (“On the Accents,” communicated by Halberstam) in Kobak’s Yeshurun, v. p. 125 sq. The liturgical poems, again, are of two kinds: (a) such as have no metre and rhyme only by means of plurals, possessive pronouns, and such like (rhymed prose), and which perfectly resemble most of the productions of the Franco-Ashkenazic school (see, for example, the facsimile in Muller’s Catalogue, Amsterdam, 1868, 8vo); (b) such as have metre and rhyme, and resemble the productions of the Sepharadic school, e.g., the one beginning הציגי ייבך (and not בו; see MS. Add. 667, leaf 102a).[4] (7) Various ordinances, &c., are to be found in later writers (see MS. Add. 667, in Cambridge, passim, and Teshuboth Maharam, Prague, 1608, folio, § 1023, &c.). Rabbenu Tham died in 1171; see Rashi’s Siddur, ii. (formerly Luzzatto’s, then Halberstam’s, and now the property of the master of St John’s College, Cambridge), leaf 48a}}
2. Rabbenu Ya'aḳob of Orleans, rabbi of London (?). He is often quoted in the Tosaphoth (both on the Pentateuch and on the Babylonian Talmud). No independent works of his, however, are extant. He was killed at London in the tumult on the coronation day of Richard Cœur-de-Lion (September 3, 1189; Schiller-Szinessy, Catal., i. p. 117). (s. m. s.-s.)
TAMAQUA, a borough of Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, United States, in a broken, hilly country, upon the Little Schuylkill river, 98 miles nearly north of Philadelphia. It is in the midst of the anthracite coal region, and coal mining is one of its principal interests. It is an important railroad centre, upon the Philadelphia and Reading system, being the point of intersection of three main lines and the terminus of several minor branches. The borough had a population of 5960 in 1870 and of 5730 in 1880.
TAMARIND.This name is popularly applied to the pods of a Leguminous tree, which are hard externally, but within filled with an acid juicy pulp containing sugar and various acids, such as citric and tartaric, in combination with potash. The acid pulp is used as a laxative and a refrigerant, the pods being largely imported both from the East and the West Indies. The tree is now widely distributed in tropical countries, but it is generally considered that its native country is in eastern tropical Africa, from Abyssinia southward to the Zambesi. Sir Ferdinand von Mueller notes that it is truly wild in tropical Australia. The name (meaning in Arabic "Indian date") shows that it entered mediæval commerce from India, where it is used, not only for its pulp, but for its seeds, which are astringent, its leaves, which furnish a yellow or a red dye, and its timber. The tree (Tamarindus indica, L.) attains a height of 70 to 80 feet, and bears elegant pinnate foliage and purplish or orange veined flowers arranged in terminal clusters. The flower-tube bears at its summit four sepals, but only three petals and three perfect stamens, with indications of six others. The stamens, with the stalked ovary, are curved away from the petals at their base, but are directed towards them at their apices. The anthers and the stigmas are thus brought into such a position as to obstruct the passage of an insect attracted by the brilliantly-coloured petal, the inference of course being that insects are necessary for the fertilization of the flower.
TAMARISK. The genus Tamarix gives its name to a small group of shrubs or low trees constituting the tamarisk family. The species of tamarisk and of the very closely allied genus Myricaria grow in salt deserts, by the sea-shore, or in other more or less sterile localities in south temperate, subtropical, and tropical regions of the eastern hemisphere. Their long slender branches bear very numerous small appressed leaves, in which the evaporating surface is reduced to a minimum. The flowers are minute and numerous, in long clusters at the ends of the branches or from the trunk. Each has 4-6 free sepals, and as many petals springing with the 4-12 stamens from a fleshy disk. In Tamarix the stamens are free, while in Myricaria they are united into one parcel. The free ovary is one-celled, with basal placentas, and surmounted by 3-5 styles. The fruit is capsular, and contains numerous seeds, each usually with a long tuft of hairs at one end. The great value of these shrubs or trees lies in their ability to withstand the effects of drought and a saline soil, in consequence of which they grow where little else can flourish. It is on this account that the common tamarisk, T. gallica, is planted on our sea-coasts, and affords shelter where none other could be provided. The light feathery appearance of the branches, and the pretty rose-coloured flowers, render it also an elegant and attractive shrub, very different in character from most others.
Some species produce galls, valued for their tannin, while the astringent bark of others has been valued for medicinal purposes. The ashes of the plant, when grown near the sea, are said to contain soda; but, when cultivated inland or on sweet soil, they are, it is alleged, free from soda.
For tamarisk manna, see Manna, vol. xv. p. 493.
TAMBOFF, one of the largest and most fertile governments of central Russia, extends from north to south between the basins of the Oka and the Don, and has
- ↑ See his Yeṣib Pithgam (in the Ashkenazic ritual; it is introductory to the prophetic lesson for the second day of Pentecost). If we have the correct reading of that poem there, Rabbenu Tham must have been a Levite; and if so, the Shemuel Hallevi mentioned by R. Ya'aḳob b. Shimshon as his teacher, in the Cambridge MS. Add. 1213, leaf 27b, is very possibly Rabbenu Tham’s paternal grandfather.
- ↑ See Sepher Hayyashar, § 595 (leaf 67a, col. 1), and § 610 (1st) in fine. To this high position it is no doubt to be ascribed that his life was saved by a knight during the second crusade, in which the whole congregation of Rameru was reduced to beggary, after many of its members had been ruthlessly slain.
- ↑ For example, the poverty-stricken Abraham Ibn ’Ezra, to whom he not only gave money but kind words also, in good verses (Kerem Ḥemed, vii. p. 35).
- ↑ For other metrical poems by Rabbenu Tham, see Zunz, Literaturg. der Syn. Poesie (Berlin, 1865, 8vo), p. 266.
