How Syria Waited Out Its Crisis and Lost Its Pariah Status
For Bashar al-Assad, mass-murder and support for terrorism paid off.
December 17, 2021
In Conceding Defeat, Yohanan ben Zakkai Paved the Way for the Restoration of Jewish Sovereignty
Returning Yavneh to the Zionist story.
A few weeks ago, Israeli archaeologists announced that they had discovered numerous artifacts of Roman-era Jewish life in the city of Yavneh, famous as the meeting place in the Sanhedrin, or high rabbinic council, in the aftermath of the Second Temple’s destruction. According to the Talmud, Yoḥanan ben Zakkai, the leading rabbi at the time, realized that the Romans were going to defeat the internally divided Jewish rebels, and negotiated permission to maintain “Yavneh and its sages”—that is, rabbinic life and study in the absence of political independence or the Temple. Both his detractors and defenders have, in recent times, depicted ben Zakkai as a sort of Jewish Quisling. Meir Soloveichik explains that he was nothing of the sort:
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Login or SubscribeDecember 17, 2021
In Conceding Defeat, Yohanan ben Zakkai Paved the Way for the Restoration of Jewish Sovereignty
Returning Yavneh to the Zionist story.
The Fate of Saudi Arabia in a Changing Middle East
Pivoting away from the region only helps China.
When the U.S. Tried to Keep Vichy France in Its Backyard
FDR asked De Gaulle to return two North American islands.
The Recurring Patterns of Biblical, and Jewish, History
“Our father Jacob never dies.”