TAM

Tam is a word of Hebrew origin, meaning plain, simple, uncomplicated.

One of the four sons of the Passover Haggadah.

The simple child's question: What is all this?

Tam, related to the important Biblical Hebrew word TAMIM, which means whole, intact, with connotations of integrity.

That integrity is more than any character has.

The word Tam appears nine times in the Hebrew Bible.

in the Psalms

in the Book of Proverbs

Six times in the Book of Job:

Job is described as a good, upright, blameless man.

It is translated as blameless, a description that would

fit the innocence and the integrity of a character.

It occurs more than once in the Torah.

Hebrew Biblical character as TAM

Gen. 25:27 reads "Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field,

while Jacob was a simple man, dwelling in tents."

JACOB is a simple man - plain and uncomplicated, notable for his integrity.

Character describing the young Jacob, his innocence and simplicity.

Jacob, like so many of us, begins as TAM, naive, trusting.

The circumstances of his life will make him in turn deceitful, cynical and manipulative.

But one night, he will meet his angel. He will emerge from the struggle injured and exhausted, limping on the next chapter of his life. And now the Bible will describe him as SHALEM, whole, united within himself, his internal conflicts coded. He has become a person of Integrity.

Integrity means being whole, unbroken, undivided. When you have integrity, all of your aspirations are focused in one direction. For the person of integrity, life may not be easy but it is simple, figure out what is right and do it.

Shalom is peace. It means more than the absence of quarreling. It means wholeness, everything fitting together, nothing missing and nothing broken.

The "Holy Fool", the person of the simple faith whose uncomplicated joy at being at the presence of God is more authentically religious than the prayers and sermons of the learned theologians.

The Fool sees the truth more than anyone else.

(Living a life that matters by Harold S. Kushner)

There is a place in heaven for fools whereas heaven's gate will be closed to the clever, cruel and calculating people who embittered his life.