Yochanan Ben Zakkai

(8) Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai received the tradition from Hillel and Shammai.... Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai had five students: Rabbi Eliezer ben Horkenos, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya, Rabbi Yosi the Priest, Rabbi Shimon ben Netanel, and Rabbi Elazar ben Arakh.

Yochanan Ben Zakkai's years numbered 120. 40 years he was involved in business, 40 years he studied, and 40 years he taught

The Gemara continues to praise the Sages. The Sages taught: Hillel the Elder had eighty students...The greatest of all the students was Yonatan ben Uzziel, and the youngest of them was Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai.

Apropos the character traits of Rabbi Eliezer, the Gemara cites character traits of his teacher. The Sages said about Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai, the teacher of Rabbi Eliezer: In all his days he never engaged in idle conversation; and he never walked four cubits without engaging in Torah study and without donning phylacteries; and no person ever preceded him into the study hall; and he never slept in the study hall, neither substantial sleep nor a brief nap; and he never contemplated matters of Torah in alleyways filthy with human excrement, as doing so is a display of contempt for the Torah; and he never left anyone in the study hall and exited; and no person ever found him sitting and silent, i.e., inactive; rather, he was always sitting and studying; and only he opened the door for his students, disregarding his own eminent standing; and he never said anything that he did not hear from his teacher; and he never said to his students that the time has arrived to arise and leave the study hall except on Passover eves, when they were obligated to sacrifice the Paschal lamb, and Yom Kippur eves, when there is a mitzva to eat and drink abundantly. And Rabbi Eliezer, his student, accustomed himself to model his conduct after his example.

They said about Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai that no one ever preceded him in issuing a greeting, not even a non-Jew in the marketplace, as Rabban Yoḥanan would always greet him first.

Rabbi Yochanan said: None are to be appointed members of the Sanhedrin but men of wisdom, of good appearance, of fine stature, of mature age, men with a knowledge of sorcery and who know seventy languages, in order that the court should have no need of an interpreter

Abba Sikra, the head of the zealots of Jerusalem, was the son of Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakai's sister. Rabbi Yochanan sent him a message, "Come privately to me." He came. Yochanan said to him, "Until when will you do this and kill the world with famine." He said to him, "What should I do? Since, if I say anything to them, they will kill me." He said to him,"Show me a solution for me, that I should get out; maybe there will be a small salvation from it." He said to him, "Act as if you are sick, and have everyone come and ask about you; and then bring something putrid and have it lay with you and they will say that you have died. And have your students bring you out and no other men should bring you out, so that we don't become aware that you are light, since they know that a living person is lighter than a dead one." He did this. Rabbi Eliezer carried him on one side and Rabbi Yehoshua on the other side. When they came to the opening, the zealot gate keepers wanted to stab him. They said to them, "The Romans will say, 'they stabbed their rabbi.'" Then they wanted to shake him. They said to them, "They will say, 'they shook their rabbi.'" They opened the gate. He went out.

When Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai reached there, i.e., the Roman camp, he said: Greetings to you, the king; greetings to you, the king. Vespasian said to him: You are liable for two death penalties, one because I am not a king and yet you call me king, and furthermore, if I am a king, why didn’t you come to me until now?

Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai said to him: As for what you said about yourself: I am not a king, in truth, you are a king, if not now, then in the future....And as for what you said with your second comment: If I am a king why didn’t you come to me until now, there are zealots among us who did not allow us to do this....In the meantime, as they were talking, a messenger [feristaka] arrived from Rome, and said to him: Rise, for the emperor has died, and the noblemen of Rome plan to appoint you as their leader and make you the next emperor.

Vespasian then said to Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai: I will be going to Rome to accept my new position, and I will send someone else in my place to continue besieging the city and waging war against it. But before I leave, ask something of me that I can give you. Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai said to him: Give me Yavne and its Sages and do not destroy it, and spare the dynasty of Rabban Gamliel, and lastly give me doctors to heal Rabbi Tzadok.

Rav Yosef read the following verse about him, and some say that it was Rabbi Akiva who applied the verse to Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai: “I am the Lord…Who turns wise men backward and makes their knowledge foolish” (Isaiah 44:25), as he should have said to him to leave the Jews alone this time. And why didn’t Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai make this request? He maintained that Vespasian might not do that much for him, and there would not be even a small amount of salvation. Therefore, he made only a modest request, in the hope that he would receive at least that much.

The festival day of Rosh Hashanah which coincided with Shabbat: they would blow the shofar in the Temple, but not in the rest of the country. After the destruction of the Temple, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai, ordained that they should blow in every place in which there is a court. Rabbi Eleizer said, "Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai only made this ordinance with respect to Yavneh alone." The Sages said back to him, "It was the same for Yavneh as for any other place in which there was a court."

Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai taught: Just as the sin offering atones for the sins of Israel, so Tzedakah atones for the sins of the nations