Rabbi Tanchum the Jerusalemite: A Fascinating Journey Following His Character, Works, and Life Story

About seven hundred years ago, a series of books, commentaries on the Torah and Prophets, dictionaries and explanations spread among Jews in Egypt, attributed to Rabbi Tanchum the Jerusalemite. His books are quoted by various commentators and authors, but no one mentioned who Rabbi Tanchum was and when he lived. Did he really live in Jerusalem, or was it just his family name?

The books state that Rabbi Tanchum died in Cairo in 1291, and his son Rabbi Yosef wrote on his grave: 'Buried in this grave is a man, who gathers all praise, the leader of the time, Tanchum son of the noble Yosef.' Was Rabbi Tanchum a scholar of Cairo?

In his commentary on the Book of Joshua, Rabbi Tanchum writes something fascinating: he tells that the descendants of the Gibeonites, the Canaanite nation that deceived Joshua son of Nun by pretending to have come from a far land, whom Joshua spared but decreed that they should be water carriers, still exist in the Land of Israel, identified as Gibeonites, more than two thousand and five hundred years after Joshua son of Nun.

He apparently was also familiar with the Cave of Hillel and Shammai, as he writes later in the Book of Joshua about the place 'Me Merom': 'Today it is called Meron, and it is a source of water, and it is told that its waters flow for pilgrims for free and immediately after was a dry place. Behold, you see it existed in ancient times but this miracle was not told.'

On the other hand, Rabbi Tanchum also shows familiarity with life in Egypt during his time. It seems, then, that he lived in both countries, Israel and Egypt.

Rabbi Tanchum laments the neglect of the Hebrew language in his time, writing extensively in its praise, and says: 'For every nation in the world has no existence except in its language, and has no reality except in its tongue.' He dealt with philosophy, and was greatly influenced by Rambam. His commentaries are so intellectual and precise that some called him 'the Ibn Ezra of the East.'

When the Mamluks conquered Acre and massacred the Jews, the bad news reached Egypt, where Rabbi Tanchum was apparently at the end of his life. His relatives were killed in Acre, and from such sorrow, he fell ill and died.

Rabbi Tanchum's son, Rabbi Yosef, was a poet. Hundreds of his poems have been preserved in a special 'Diwan' that collects them. Among them are interesting and surprising poems; one is a poem of rebuke to a poet named Ibrahim the Jerusalemite, perhaps a relative, where he pleads with him in poetic language not to write mocking poems about people... He also wrote a poem about a man who borrowed a book from him and did not return it, and another poem about the fleas bothering him at night. He dedicated a great poem to describe his father's greatness.