The Jewish 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Jews of All Time by Michael Shapiro

Author:Michael Shapiro [Shapiro, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ranking, Judaism, Jews, jewish, jewish 100, Religion, biographies, religious, influential, Biography, History
ISBN: 9780806521671
Amazon: 0806521678
Publisher: Citadel
Published: 2000-10-02T07:00:00+00:00

53

Roman victory coin: “Judea Captive.”

Johanan ben Zakkai

(ca. 80 C.E.)

Legend has it that during the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 C.E. he was smuggled out in a coffin by students. The Jewish rebels, the Zealots, had sealed the city and were not letting anyone pass. The name of the students’ master was the deputy head of the Sanhedrin, the Rabban, Johanan ben Zakkai.

Johanan ben Zakkai had opposed the rebellion. He did not believe in messianism, but in learning. He is justly credited with the preservation of Judaism, not grounded in sacrificial worship at the Temple in Jerusalem (destroyed by the Roman legions) but in the fortress of the Torah, of Jewish law.

This student of Hillel was considered by many Jews of his time to be a traitor. Upon his escape from Jerusalem, Johanan ben Zakkai ventured into the military camp of the Roman general Vespasian. Pleased at the capture of so prominent a Jewish leader, Vespasian gave him an audience. The rabbi pleaded for asylum from the Zealots and predicted that Vespasian would become Caesar. “Give me Yavneh and its sages,” said the rabbi. The Roman general (soon indeed to be declared emperor by his troops) granted the Rabban’s request for the town near the coast west of Jerusalem called Yavneh (near modern-day Jaffa).

Under the auspices of the Roman authority, in a vineyard and on an upper story of a house, Johanan ben Zakkai established an academy in Yavneh for the study of Jewish law. Yavneh became for the first time in hundreds of years the center of Jewish thinking, one not located in Jerusalem. The initial codification of Jewish law and, most important in the history of western civilization, the putting of the Old Testament into final form, took place in Yavneh. The events of the Jewish calendar, including its wondrous festivals (Passover, Purim, and the like) and sacred holy days, were marked forever. The rabbinical court at Yavneh was for its people a house of judgment (bet din) and model for governance in the difficult dark ages that followed.

This retreat into the core of Judaism, away from futile battles with superior military powers, from the control of a central Temple in Jerusalem, and from the zealous yearning for a Messiah, gave the religion a new beginning. Johanan ben Zakkai, in the style of Hillel, urged simply that Jews not rush to tear down pagan altars. If you are planting a tree and someone rushes up to you and tells you the Messiah has arrived, continue planting, then go see. No more battles, no more sacrificial ritual, no more state, he urged—only study. Countless cultures would rise and be lost in the black centuries before the Renaissance. The Jews would survive, and it was because of this perspective, the example of Johanan ben Zakkai.

After the disastrous revolt of Simon Bar Kokhba in the next century, the academy ceased to exist at Yavneh, first transferred to the western Galilee, passed generation by generation through families of imposing patriarchs, then disappeared in the sandstorms of war and disruption.

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