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A Tisha B'Av meditation: Yohanan Ben Zakkai: Yavneh's lost hero.

Article Excerpt
In the dark days of the first great Jewish rebellion against the Roman Empire, Yohanan Ben Zakkai emerged as a sober realist among a divided army of apocalyptic rebels. The early rabbi's actions during the revolt changed the course of Jewish history. Although the Zealots intended to overthrow the yoke of Roman rule over Judea, they were unable to understand what Rabbi Yohanan, a man of practical vision, understood--that the Romans would emerge triumphant. Since the ruling Zealot factions refused to allow any Jews to leave a besieged Jerusalem, Rabbi Yohanan faked his own demise and was successfully sneaked out of Jerusalem in a coffin carried by his disciples. Rabbi Yohanan presented himself to the Roman general Vespasian, predicting that the general would soon become emperor of Rome. The prediction came true and the newly crowned emperor rewarded Rabbi Yohanan, granting the rabbi's request that the Jewish sages of his generation be saved from the Roman juggernaut and be allowed to settle in the coastal town of Yavneh. Judaism continued on and developed in Yavneh even though the Jewish people would soon lose to the flames their political and religious center of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. The last of the extremists who led the rebellion would die by their own hand on the Masada fortress only a few years later.

The legend of Rabbi Yohanan and Yavneh as related in rabbinic sources has endured. The reality behind the story is that Yohanan Ben Zakkai and other Jewish leaders who surrendered to the Romans were placed under house arrest and subjected to internal exile. The Talmud relates that Yohanan Ben Zakkai's decision...