Yochanan ben zakkai biography channel wikipedia

He was a primary contributor to the core text of Rabbinic Judaism , the Mishnah. His name is often preceded by the honorific title Rabban. He is widely regarded as one of the most important Jewish figures of his time, and his escape from the Roman destruction of Jerusalem which allowed him to continue teaching may have been instrumental in Rabbinic Judaism's survival post-Temple.

His tomb is located in Tiberias within the Maimonides burial compound. Yohanan was the first Jewish sage attributed the title of rabbi in the Mishnah. The Talmud reports that, in the mid-first century, he was particularly active in opposing the interpretations of Jewish law Halakha by the Sadducees [ 2 ] [ 3 ] and produced counter-arguments to their objections to the interpretations of the Pharisees.

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His home at this time was in Arraba , a village in the Galilee , where he spent eighteen years. During the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE in the First Jewish—Roman War , he argued in favour of peace: according to the Talmud Gittin 56a , when he found the anger of the besieged populace to be intolerable, he arranged a secret escape from the city inside a coffin, helped by his nephew and Zealot leader Ben Batiach , so that he could negotiate with Vespasian who, at this time, was still just a military commander.

In return, Vespasian granted Yochanan three wishes: the salvation of Yavne and its sages and the descendants of Rabban Gamliel , who was of the Davidic line , and a physician to treat Rabbi Zadok , who had fasted for 40 years to stave off the destruction of Jerusalem. Upon the destruction of Jerusalem, Yochanan converted his school at Yavne into the Jewish religious centre, insisting that certain privileges given by Jewish law uniquely to Jerusalem should be transferred to Yavne.

Referring to a passage in the Book of Hosea "I desired mercy, and not sacrifice" , [ 11 ] he helped persuade the Sanhedrin to—as the temple had been destroyed—replace animal sacrifice with prayer, [ 12 ] a practice that remains the basis of Jewish worship. Eventually, Rabbinic Judaism emerged from the council's conclusions.