אָמְרוּ עָלָיו עַל רַבָּן יוֹחָנָן בֶּן זַכַּאי שֶׁהָיָה יוֹשֵׁב בְּצִילּוֹ שֶׁל הֵיכָל, וְדוֹרֵשׁ כׇּל הַיּוֹם כּוּלּוֹ.

They said about Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai that he would sit in the street adjacent to the Temple Mount in the shade of the Sanctuary and expound to a large number of people all day long.

There seems to me to be something poignant and prophetic about this image of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai teaching Torah literally and metaphorically in the shadow of the Temple. Rabbi Yochanan’s personal life, was particularly within the shadow of the Temple is a sense that he lived lived through the destruction of the Second Temple. But that is not the only shadow that occurred. While Jerusalem was under siege, he secretly established diplomatic relations with Vespasian, an act considered traitorous by the “baryunei”, the zealots who believed they must fight the Romans (Gittin 56). 

Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai’s foresight and “shadowy” behavior allowed him to rebuild the Sanhedrin in Yavneh, under the protection of the Roman government, which allowed continuity of Jewish religious life beyond the Temple life. 

Another aspect of Rabbi Yochanan’s life that existed “within the shadow of the Temple” was that many of the Takkanos he enacted in Yavneh (rabbinic decrees) involved modifying the laws in order for ritual to remain significant in a post Temple world. Examples of this include expanding the days of Lulav and Esrog outside of the Temple (Mishna Rosh HaShanah 4:3) and to allow blowing of the Shofar on Shabbos Rosh HaShanah in Yavneh, as a substitute for the Temple area (ibid, 4:1), amongst many others.

Hindsight is 20/20, but it’s important to imagine how confusing it was for people living in Rabbi Yochanan’s time. Not all of his actions were appreciated, even by his colleagues, let alone the Zealots who saw him as seditious. See for example the resistance of the Sages of Bnei Besiera to his edict regarding Shofar, Rosh Hashana 29b, and Rabbi Akiva who criticized Rabbi Yochanan for not asking Vespasian for more concessions such as saving Jerusalem, Gittin 56b.) 

The lesson is that when you are in a chaotic situation, even when you are making the right choices it is hard for others to see them as right. There often is one visionary who can see the future clearly, however there are also so many others who think they see the correct path forward, but are in error. May we have the wisdom to follow the right leaders and not the misguided ones.

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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