“WHILE ALMOST ALL CONTEMPORARY JEWS REGARD RABBI YOCHANAN ben Zakkai as a hero, many Jews of his own day saw him as a traitor, and some, such as the Jews who fought at *Masada, would have gladly killed him.

Rabbi Yochanan lived in Jerusalem in the year 70, when the city was under Roman siege. To prevent any inhabitants from surrendering to the Romans, the Jewish rebel leaders forbade people, on pain of death, from leaving Jerusalem.

Rabbi Yochanan was determined to find a way out of the besieged city; he realized that Rome would soon overpower the rebel forces and destroy Jerusalem—perhaps even the Temple—thereby threatening Judaism’s very survival.

He sent for his nephew, Abba Sikra, one of the revolt’s leaders, and said: “Find some way for me to leave the city. Perhaps I will be able to save something.” “Abba Sikra replied: ‘Pretend to be sick and let people come to visit you. Get something with a bad odor and let the smell become overpowering, and people will then say you have died. Then let [two of] your disciples carry you out, and no one else.’ “

He carried out this procedure. Rabbi Eliezer carried him by the head and Rabbi Joshua by the feet and Abba Sikra walked in front. When they reached the city gate, the guards asked, ‘What is this?’ They replied: ‘A dead man. Do you not know that a corpse may not be kept overnight in Jerusalem?’ [The guards] wanted to pierce him through to make certain he was a corpse. Abba Sikra said to them, ‘The Romans will [hear about it and] say,’ They pierced their own master …’ “

[The guards] opened the gate and the group left. Rabbi Yochanan was carried to a cemetery outside the city, the others left him there and returned. He went to the camp of [the Roman general] Vespasian.” Delighted at the surrender of so prominent a Jewish leader—one who in addition prophesied that someday he would be Caesar—Vespasian said to Rabbi Yochanan: “You can make one request and I will grant it.” “Give me Yavneh and its sages,” he asked of Vespasian; in other words, permit him to establish a seminary in the outlying town of Yavneh. Vespasian granted the request.

...Rabbi Yochanan’s academy of Jewish learning in Yavneh soon became a worthy successor to the *Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. More than any other figure, he must be credited with establishing a model of a Judaism that could survive without a Temple, without sacrifices, and even without a state.”