Yavne

He was the one who had the foresight to say, forget Jerusalem, let's rebuild Jerusalem.

Let's rebuild Judaism from scratch at Yavneh.

And Rosh Hashanah, I would argue, we associate with Abraham.

The Torah reading relates to his life, and again, as the first Jew, Rosh Hashanah beginning, he tends to be, I would say, you could argue a little bit, other people, but Avraham is the key figure, I think, on Rosh Hashanah.

You know what? You know what? You know what? Push them off the edge.

Rabbi Chutzpah is the interpreter who was the interpreter for Rabbi Gamaliel of Yavna.

One of the Asar al-Rugay Malchus.

He was murdered by the Romans a day before he turned 130 years old.

When the temple was destroyed, Ben Zakkai managed to escape from Jerusalem in a coffin, of all things.

And afterwards, he convened a council at a place called Yavne, not far from the modern city of Tel Aviv.

And at Yavne, they developed this broken cistern predicted by Jeremiah.

a spiritually bankrupt substitute for Judaism that they still called Judaism.

This mixture where instead of a priest, you'd have a rabbi.

And the first request is very, very telling.

He says, give me Yavne.

I understand you're about to destroy Jerusalem.

I can't stand a thwart of history yelling, stop.

As far as we can tell, there are some arguments o- o- o- on these issues, but the assumption is, I'm, I'm basically following, uh, uh, Fleischer's view here, that in the beginning, I mean, after 70 CE, when they had to find some sort of a replacement in, to, to somehow, uh, find an, an alternative to the old way of, of, of, of, you know, the central, the c- uh, role of the Mikdash, when everybody was just focused on what was going on there, and but now we don't have the, the temple anymore, um, until further notice, and we have to, to find out, uh, how to survive, uh, how to be Jewish.

And then Chachamim, Chazal, uh, Yavneh, uh, make, uh, this, uh, uh, decision that we have the, uh, obligation to, to pray, to daven.

Yes? At least three times a day in a very specific, uh, Nusach, a very specific, uh, uh, uh, text.

Yes, to say w- mainly the Amidah, the, the prayer of the Amidah, and also, you know, the Kriyat Shema and the blessings that you have before and after.

Granted one wish, the rabbi asks not for Jerusalem to be spared or for the temple or his family or his students or any of those poor souls left behind to be saved.

Instead, he asks for Yavne, a small town about an hour's drive from Jerusalem, where he will begin to forge the Judaism that we strive to practice today.

Perhaps the Talmud hints Rabbi Yoḥanan ben Zakkai is pragmatic.

His modest request at least secures some small bit of salvation for the people.

People forget the next two.

Tenli Yavne v'chachmeha.

Give me the city of Yavne and its sages.

Number two.

Spare the dynasty of Rabban Gamliel.

Rabban Gamliel is going to be the future leader.

Rabbi Tzedok is kind of the remnant of the spiritual greatness of the past.

And Yavne is going to be the future.