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When Jerusalem fell to Rome in 70 CE, the whole of Jewish civilization faced collapse. As the Temple was leveled and ransacked of its holy treasures, zealots mounted a desperate, doomed defense, and hopelessness seemed the only path forward. Yet the great Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, the progenitor of Rabbinic Judaism, took another course. Smuggled out of the city, he did not plead for vengeance or even survival. He instead asked the Roman general for permission to build a school in the small town of Yavneh.

From the ashes of catastrophe, Yochanan planted seeds that would lead to a Jewish flourishing.

This humble but visionary choice remains one of the most consequential in our histo

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