Rabbi yochanan ben zakkai biography of william
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One way of telling the story of rabbinic Judaism is to say that it was born in a conversation between Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai and the Roman general Vespasian, in the shadow of a besieged Jerusalem. Rabbi Yochanan had feigned death in order to be smuggled out of the walled city in a coffin despite the opposition of the Jewish zealots, who were not interested in negotiations with the enemy. Vespasian, impressed by Rabbi Yochanan’s bravery and his prediction that Vespasian would eventually become emperor of Rome, asked him what he wanted. Rabbi Yochanan’s famous answer was “give me Yavneh and its [Torah] sages,” thus establishing a center of Jewish learning independent of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Rabbi Yochanan’s foresight transformed the brick-and-mortar reality of a Temple-centered Judaism into the port- able diaspora-ready religion with which we are familiar, and thus granted a powerful second wind to a Jewish nation that might have been otherwise brought to its knees by Roman oppression.
Dara Horn’s mind- bending new novel, Eternal Life, takes place from the perspective of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai’s heretofore unknown mother Rachel. Rachel embodies a gruelingly literal interpretation of Rabbi Yochanan’s
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Yochanan ben Zakai (Hebrew: יוחנן בן זכאי, died 80-90 C.E.), too spelled Johanan b. Zakki, was initiative important rabbinic sage focal point the terminating days weekend away the Subsequent Temple period of Faith and a key tariff in description transition vary Temple-centered harmony Rabbinical Monotheism.
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Life
Little is put in the picture about Yochanan'
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I vividly remember standing in our sanctuary on Friday afternoon, March 13, 2020, in shock and disbelief, less than an hour after sending an email canceling services. For 130 years, my predecessors and generations of congregants worked tirelessly to build and maintain Jewish life in Oakland, California, and here we were, closing the doors to the building. I slowly walked to the light switches, turned off the chandeliers that hung from the A-frame structure, and looked back one last time before exiting the building. Feeling the weight of the words from Eicha (Lamentations 5:21) for the first time in my life, I davened:
הֲשִׁיבֵנוּ ה' אֵלֶיךָ וְנָשׁוּבָה חַדֵּשׁ יָמֵינוּ כְּקֶדֶם
Bring us back to you, God, and we will come back; renew our days as of old!
More than a year later, that return has slowly begun. First with weekday minyanim, then Shabbat morning services. The most challenging High Holy Days of my career were a chaotic success. We have celebrated britot, baby-namings, and bar mitzvahs and marked shivas — all outdoors, distanced, and masked. And finally, on March 14, 2021, a small group of us returned to the sanctuary for the first time to mark Rosh Chodesh Nissan davening, a month of renewal.
There have been many times in the last year when