תֵּבָה, תֵּיבָה (b. h. תֵּבָה; Egyptian; v., however, תָּבָא) 1) ship, ark, chest. Gen. R. s. 31 (play on קנים, Gen. VI, 14) מה הקן … אף תֵּיבָתְךָ וכ׳ as birds (v. קֵן) make the leper clean, so does thy ark cleanse thee. Ib. על שם תֵּיבָתוֹ של נח (it is called t’biḳin) from the measures of Noah’s ark. Y. Erub. V, 22ᶜ bot. כיצד היו ישראל … כת׳ how did the Israelites march in the desert?… like a chest (forming a square), opp. כקורה like a beam (in columns). Men. 94ᵇ כמין ת׳ פרוצה (the shape of the show-bread was) that of an open chest (without a lid and with a level bottom), opp. כמין ספינה רוקדת like a rocking ship (with a curved bottom). Sifra M’tsorʿa, Zab., Par. 1, ch. II תֵּיבַת הבלנים the bathers’ chest. Tosef. Kel. B. Mets. X, 1, sq.; a. fr.—Pl. תֵּבוֹת, תֵּי׳. Midr. Till. to Ps. I היה צריך לעשות ת׳ הרבה he would have been obliged to build many arks. Y. Sot. VIII, beg. 22ᵇ שהיו עשויין ת׳ ת׳ they (the Egyptians) were arrayed in squares.—Esp. the chest in the synagogue containing the scrolls of the Pentateuch. Sot. 38ᵇ, v. פְּסַק. Taan. II, 1 מוציאין את הת׳ וכ׳ (at prayer meetings) they bring the chest out to the open place of the town, and put ashes of wood on the chest &c. Meg. III, 1 בני העיר … בה"כ לוקחין ת׳ ת׳ וכ׳ if the citizens of a township sell … a synagogue, they may buy (for the money) a book chest; if they sell a chest, they may buy book wrappers; a. fr.—עבר לפני הת׳, ירד לפני הת׳ to go before the chest, to act as reader of prayers. Ber. 34ᵃ שירד לפני הת׳ וכ׳ who recited the prayers in the presence of &c. Ib. V, 3 העובר לפני הת׳ וטעה וכ׳ if a reader makes a mistake (reads heretical formulas), another person must pass before the chest in his place. Ib. 4. Ib. 34ᵃ העובר לפני הת׳ צריך לסרב he that is asked to read the prayers &c., v. סָרַב. Taan. II, 2 מורידין לפני הת׳ וכ׳ we depute as reader (on fast days) an old man &c.; a. v. fr. —2) word. Men. 30ᵇ ת׳ בת שתי וכ׳ a word of two letters. Sabb. 104ᵃ they did not know הי באמצע ת׳ וכ׳ in which (of the two forms of the letters מנצפ"ך) were to be employed in the middle of a word, and which at the end; a. fr.—Pl. תֵּיבוֹת, תֵּיבִיּוֹת. Ḥull. 64ᵇ דפסק … ת׳ (v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note 40) where the scribe divides them into two words; ib. 65ᵃ. Y. Meg. I, 71ᶜ bot. תיביות; a. e.