Fashioning a Foundation Myth for the Rabbinic Movement

“Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai is a Friend of the Emperor”

In the wake of the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE, the rabbis established a rabbinic center in the city of Yavneh, but early rabbinic literature does not reveal how the rabbis arrived at Yavneh. This lacuna in early rabbinic literature, however, was filled in the later literature by means of a story which tells how Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai escaped the besieged Jerusalem, met the Roman emperor Vespasian and received his blessing to relocate to Yavneh. This story became a foundation myth for the rabbinic movement, and we hope to identify some of the sources of inspiration which guided the sages in their formation of this famous legend