“Israel’s Miss Manners” Extends an Outstretched Hand
While researching the history of Israeli social etiquette at the National Library, Noa Bavly accidently stumbled across a particular book that had once belonged to her great-grandmother, Hanna Bavly - Israel's own "Miss Manners"…
Hanna Bavly, Israel's queen of etiquette, and the book "Hanna Bavly is Rolling in Her Grave", written by her great-granddaughter Noa Bavly - images courtesy of Noa Bavly
When I was about to graduate from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, I started thinking about my final project. I decided to create a book from scratch – designing it, forming the concept, choosing the format, the fonts and the images as well as the type of paper. I even made the book cover myself using several techniques and stitched and bound it by hand. In a digital age, I wanted to go back to the fundamentals and create a book whose pages cannot be swiped with a finger.
In order to choose a subject, I looked at my family and surroundings. I wanted to choose a personal subject that would also be relevant and timely. This led me to the idea of writing about current Israeli society from a historical and personal perspective, using the writings of my great-grandmother, the late Hanna Bavly, who was nicknamed “Israel’s Miss Manners.”
Hanna Bavly visiting a chemical plant in South Africa, photo courtesy of Noa Bavly
The production of the book required extensive and serious cultural and historical research. In my research I went to the National Library of Israel. Searching for books on manners and etiquette, I found an American book from the 1980s (The New Etiquette by Marjabelle Young Stewart, St. Martin’s Press) and took it out. Upon opening the book, on the inside cover, was a surprise. An outstretched hand from the past. In the first page of the book was an inscription that noted the book had once been a part of my great-grandmother Hanna Bavly’s personal collection (she had hundreds of books on the subject), and was donated to the National Library by her son after her death.
Noa Bavly was surpised to learn that the book she had loaned from the National Library of Israel (The New Etiquette by Marjabelle Young Stewart, St. Martin’s Press) was donated to the NLI by her own great-grandmother, Hanna Bavly
But as I said, Hanna Bavly’s meticulous manners were just a starting point for a timely and relevant statement. The book I designed focuses on manners—or more precisely—the lack of manners in Israeli society. It draws a line between the iconic figure of Hanna Bavly (whose name became synonymous with manners and etiquette) and contemporary Israel.
Hanna Bavly was Israel’s leading expert on etiquette and manners. Above is a page from The New Etiquette by Marjabelle Young Stewart, which Bavly donated to the National Library of Israel
The book’s third chapter, titled “The Dream and Its Downfall” contrasts Hanna’s manners and etiquette advice from her “Questions and Answers” column that she wrote from the early 1960s until the late 1980s with cringeworthy, embarrassing, humorous, vulgar, and iconic moments in Israeli culture and public life. The chapter focuses on four aspects in which vulgarity prevails: interpersonal relationships, politics, table manners and road rage.
Two of Hanna Bavly’s newspaper columns on etiquette – on the left Hanna advises one of her readers not to intervene in the work of the waiting staff at a restaurant, even when a pile of dirty dishes is waiting to be removed. On the right – Hanna advises a woman who is consistently ignored by her husband during social encounters to take initiative and not wait to be introduced – “Introduce yourself, with your full name and position, to any person whom you feel it is right and necessary for you to know. It is likely that after a few such independent introductions, your husband will change his practice.” – courtesy of Noa Bavly
The other three chapters include an introduction to the history of manners in both Israeli and universal context, a chapter on the life and work of Hanna Bavly and a closing chapter featuring relevant academic articles that broaden the perspective and view.
A poster promoting a lecture and Q&A session in Tel Aviv with Hanna Bavly, titled “Our Manners – What We Have and What We Desire”, November 11, 1967. The Tel Aviv – Yafo City Archives, available via the NLI digital collection
I tailored the design to match the content of the chapters: the first two chapters, focusing on the history of manners, etiquette, and Hanna Bavly herself, as well as the fourth (academic) chapter, are designed with restraint and sophistication. The third chapter however, which contrasts Hanna’s polite advice with Israeli reality, is designed in a wild style reminiscent of trashy tabloids.
I designed the book in a way that recalled Hanna’s columns – just like Hanna, I too decided that a serious message can best be conveyed with a healthy dose of humor. I kept the original titles and Q&As of Hanna Bavly’s columns and incorporated them in my book ironically. This choice contributes to the critical, ironic and amusing language of the book.
Hanna Bavly is Rolling in Her Grave, by Noa Bavly
The book Hanna Bavly is Rolling in Her Grave is my final project for the Department of Visual Communication at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. I am grateful and appreciative to my final project mentor, Idan Vaaknin, for his close and enriching guidance. He was the perfect role model teaching me a lot and providing me with a significant experience. I am hoping to publish my book soon so stay tuned.
The story of how one man's successful photography company was able to document life in Israel across several decades. Why did he later decide to destroy his life's work? Dan Hadani is celebrating his 100th birthday, and to mark it he told us of his personal journey which led him to granting all of us an invaluable gift of photographic documentation. This was his creation – now it’s our story.
Left: Dan Hadani during a visit to the National Library of Israel, 2024. Right: Dan Hadani taking photos during a visit to Egypt during the peace talks, 1977. Photo by David Peretz, the Dan Hadani Archive, the Pritzker Family National Photography Collection at the National Library of Israel
On August 24, 2024, Dan Hadani marked his 100th birthday. He celebrated this joyous event with a party, almost an act of defiance against life itself – against everything he experienced as a child in Poland, against everything the State of Israel has been through, and against the terrible ordeals of the past year – letting everyone know: I’m still here!
He uses a walker and is easily tired, but his mind is clear and sharp and his memory promises to provide us with a fascinating story, spread out over a century, a story which cannot be done justice even with a thousand pictures.
In the hundred years that have passed since his birth, he has managed to reinvent himself a number of times and live multiple lives with the resourcefulness of the proverbial cat. In his most significant incarnation, the one based in Israel, he built one of the most important visual archives collected here with his own two hands, a monumental life project for one man.
In 2016, that project faced destruction – at the hands of its creator. After decades of devotion to photographs and documentation, Hadani decided that the two million negatives, meticulously cataloged and a photographic testament to events in Israel from 1965 to 2000, would be destroyed.
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Dan Hadani was born Dunek Zloczewski in Lodz, Poland.
He began life as a Polish Jew raised by a Zionist family. As a child, he saw his parents take pride in their work and craft, and that striving for professional excellence became a part of him. From his father, he learned the difficulty of living as a Jew in a state that was not his own, dealing with emerging antisemitism, and the importance of mutual aid and charitable works.
He spent his youth trying to survive in the Lodz Ghetto and then in Auschwitz, where he met Dr. Mengele and where he was largely able to avoid the wrath of his Nazi workmasters. He managed to survive and to offer support to others who suffered worse fates. He used everything he had – knowledge of languages, the ability to learn quickly, as well as technical skills – in order to show how necessary he was to the SS men. At the same time, he served as an assistant to the ghetto doctor and tried to do everything he could to help his friends in need.
In 1945, Hadani was freed from Nazi captivity. His parents and his only sister, however, had already been murdered by the Nazis. Although he had other options, Hadani felt it was clear that he would fulfill his parents’ unwritten will, realizing their Zionist dream and making Aliyah to Israel.
A year later, Hadani went to study seamanship in Italy. He passed the course with flying colors and immediately returned to Israel: “I came on Aliya Dalet – 3,000 people with forged passports. I had a Dutchman’s passport, a Jew who lived in Israel.”
A day after he arrived, he was enlisted in the navy of a country that had just been established: “I didn’t know a word in Hebrew; here and there ‘Shalom’ or words like that,” he recalled. “But on the ship the orders were in Hebrew. I often asked ‘What’s that word?” and they translated it for me. That’s how I learned. There were a hundred and twenty soldiers on the ship, the vast majority of them new immigrants and they gave us orders in this way. That’s how I learned Hebrew.”
It wasn’t the first time Hadani was thrown into a situation alone and without basic knowledge. As he had done before, he used his amazing resourcefulness and survival abilities to develop within the navy, from a new immigrant who knew no Hebrew to an officer who served for 15 years.
David Ben-Gurion, photographed by Dan Hadani on Israel’s 25th Independence Day. May 7, 1973, the Dan Hadani Archive, the Pritzker Family National Photography Collection at the National Library of Israel
And then, somewhat surprisingly, his last appointment in the IDF was as a press officer for the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit. The change had a dramatic effect on him: “In the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit I received the shock of my life. I met with reporters at Sokolov House, suddenly I heard all the stories.” Instead of making efforts to hide secret operational activity, Hadani now had to think differently. As a press officer, he was responsible for managing, accompanying, and briefing journalists and photographers from Israel and around the world, helping them cover events related to the IDF. This, he admits, was his apprenticeship in journalism.
When he was released from the IDF a year later, he had a clear idea of what he wanted to do next. He was 41 years old: “The moment I got out of the army, I had an idea what I would do. I wanted to form an association, a group of photographers, and open a company, a cooperative of press photographers. I wanted to be the one organizing it, just like I was during my time in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.”
While serving in the unit, Hadani had identified the need for a professional agency for photography and press purposes, which could quickly cover events across the country: “I wanted to establish a large cooperative and see to people’s livelihood. I saw that we lacked a specific body in the country, that we weren’t initiating contact with people from outside of Israel, with the foreign press.” Everyone who heard the idea tried to talk him out of it, saying it was too big a project for him and that he would fail before he even started.
Despite this, he gathered together some photographers he knew to pitch the idea: “Some 10, 12 photographers came, and I told them what I wanted to do. And then one photographer got up in the middle and asked: ‘Tell me, you want us to run out and take pictures while you sit in the office? I’ll be running around and you’ll get money to sit at a desk? You want me to hand over my salary to you?”
An article and photos by Dan Hadani, dedicated to artists Meir and Makvalla Pichhadze. Maariv, February 20, 1976, the Historical Jewish Press Collection at the National Library of Israel
Nothing came of the meeting, but Hadani wouldn’t give up and decided to go it alone. For many long months, he worked as a freelance photographer, even getting writing opportunities from foreign journalists: “If I needed a photographer, I ordered a photographer for pay – on one condition: that the negatives were mine,” he said. When at one point he couldn’t find a photographer, he bought a camera and began taking his own pictures.
Slowly but surely, Hadani gained success and clients, ultimately realizing the dream he envisioned when he first left the army. He established the Israel Press & Photo Agency, or IPPA. He worked with salaried and freelance photographers, both in Israel and around the world. Over the course of 45 years of activity, the agency covered almost every important event in Israel: if there was a big concert, government meeting, or terror attack – Hadani’s photographers were there. In fact, if you were reading newspaper reports about Israel during this time, you probably saw thousands of his agency’s photographs.
Hadani took care to properly preserve all the photos he received and all the rights he acquired. With admirable care for detail, he cataloged and maintained the negatives from all the photos which reached the agency, quietly cultivating an archive which documented much of life in the State of Israel at ground level.
Hadani is proud, and rightly so, of his journalistic achievements: The photo of the father of Robert Kennedy’s assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, reading a newspaper with the article on the murder, became world-famous. A photo showing Menachem Begin bending over before Anwar Sadat and Jimmy Carter (he was picking something up) during a peace treaty ceremony was also a hit and a nice change from the generally rigid statesmanship of the time. There was also an article featuring the first photos of legendary Soviet WWII-era spy Leopold Trepper following his arrival in Israel. Trepper immigrated in 1974 and spent the last few years of his life in the country. To this we can add hundreds of thousands of pictures, piles of film documenting major cultural and political events as well as wars and terrorist attacks.
A photo by Dan Hadani, showing Israeli PM Menachem Begin bent over next to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. US President Jimmy Carter is standing behind Sadat. This photo was taken on March 25, 1979, ahead of the signing of the historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. The Dan Hadani Archive, the Pritzker Family National Photography Collection at the National Library of Israel
When he decided to close the agency and retire, he didn’t know what would become of the archival treasure trove he had developed over decades: “I created something that doesn’t exist in the country. It was my own little quirk. It’s hard for me today to understand how I even ended up doing it. You cultivate it. You keep perfecting it. And it’s hard. It’s hard to let go…”
He tried to find a place which would take his life’s work in its entirety and understand its incredible inherent value. After a few years of fruitless searches and failed deals, he decided with sadness to destroy the project he had dedicated much of his life to: “I was about to buy two shredders to begin destroying the negatives. I cried. To destroy such a thing? I knew there was a treasure here.”
Fortunately, Hadani discussed his intentions with his daughter-in-law, Batya Calderon, who quickly appealed to Dr. Hezi Amiur, curator of the Israel Collection at the National Library. Amiur immediately understood the value of this archive and succeeded in convincing Hadani to provide the National Library with the entire collection, which could then serve the broader public.
Despite the great difficulty in saying goodbye to the illustrious project he’d cultivated for years, Hadani had finally found a home for his life’s work: “I am happy and I am content,” he said. “I am very proud that it’s in the best hands I could have dreamed of.”
Watch our special interview with Dan Hadani (English subtitles available via Youtube’s auto-translate option)
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Even at 100 years old, Hadani refuses to sit back and take it easy. Last year, he built up a website on the Wix platform which tells the story of his life and his journalistic achievements, as well as other challenges he overcame in life. He still drives a car and takes care to remain curious and incisive, even today: “I expect and am waiting to enjoy the future. And I will rest a little, because I work very hard.”
With the look of a sober, knowledgeable man, keenly aware of the past and looking firmly towards the future, he made a very specific request in honor of his birthday: “I want to see a good future. I want to see the state I built. Today I don’t see it.”
The Bible of the Conversos
Years after being forced to leave Judaism behind, many of the conversos of Spain and Portugal sought to return to their suppressed roots. The Ferrara Bible, which was printed in the 16th century and revised countless times, helped them rediscover their religion. Dozens of copies of this Bible are still scattered around the world today.
After many years of being cut off from Judaism, the conversos of Spain and Portugal migrated to other countries around the world, with many of them attempting to return to the Jewish faith. They didn’t have much knowledge of Judaism, and they didn’t even know the Hebrew alphabet. However, childhood memories, family stories, and discreetly maintained traditions encouraged these “New Christians” to try to reconnect with their roots in their newly adopted homes.
Throughout the 16th century, converso communities began to print Jewish books in Spanish. Initially, these printed works included the foundational Jewish texts, followed later by works on Jewish philosophy, anti-Christian texts, and books of poetry. A Portuguese grammar book and a play based on the Book of Esther, both printed by conversos during this period, have been preserved. A little later, in the 17th century, conversos published what is considered the world’s first Jewish newspaper, the Gazeta de Amsterdam. The newspaper was published in Amsterdam and was primarily intended for Jewish merchants.
It all began in the city of Ferrara, in northern Italy. Conversos settled there in the 16th century, and established the earliest printing industry dedicated to works of Spanish and Portuguese conversos. The publishing work later moved to Venice, and then in the 17th century to Amsterdam, where it remained for approximately 200 years. During the expulsion from Spain and Portugal in the last decade of the 15th century, there was already a Jewish community living in Ferrara, and the Jewish printing house had been operating there for several years. From 1477 to 1551, it published the Arba’ah Turim (a work dedicated to Jewish religious law) and commentaries on the books of Job and Daniel.
Against this backdrop, Ferrara attracted many conversos wishing to return to their Judaism, since the location offered them such a comfortable environment. Among those who settled there was Abraham Usque, a converso who had printed Latin books in Portugal. In 1543, he came under suspicion of practicing Judaism in secret and fled from Portugal to Ferrara.
Shortly after the arrival of the conversos in Ferrara in 1552, a Spanish member of the community named Yom-Tob Atias published a siddur (prayer book) and later a book of the Selichot penitential prayers. Usque and Atias met each other and in 1553, they published a complete Bible in Spanish together. According to an inscription found on the inside cover, this was done with the approval of the Duke of Ferrara. The full title of the Bible they published was: “The Bible in the Spanish language, translated word for word from the true Hebrew by very excellent scholars, seen and examined by the office of the Inquisition.” To this day, it is commonly known as “The Ferrara Bible.”
Since it is a very literal translation, it is a bit of a strange read in Spanish; rather than writing the biblical stories in Spanish, the text is translated word for word, sometimes without syntax, exactly as it is written in the original Hebrew. While the Ferrara Bible was printed in Roman letters, some people consider the translation to be written in the Judeo-Spanish language of Ladino, because it adheres strictly to the original Hebrew text.
The Ferrara Bible, 1553. An inscription reads Iblia en lengua española traduzida palabra por palabra de la verdad hebrayca por muy excelentes letrados vista y examinada por el officio de la Inquisicion (“The Bible in the Spanish language, translated word for word from the true Hebrew by very excellent scholars, seen and examined by the office of the Inquisition.”)
The Ferrara Bible was first and foremost intended for conversos who wanted to study the Bible but did not have sufficient knowledge, if any, of Hebrew. The other target audience included Spanish-speaking Christians.
In the past, certain scholars surmised that in order to serve both types of readers, the Ferrara Bible was printed in two similar versions, with the differences reflecting the two target audiences’ respective expectations. In any case, the National Library of Israel has a copy of each version.
The “Christian” version states that it was printed by Jerónimo de Vargas and Duarte Pinel. The first page includes a long dedication to Duke Ercole II d’Este, who ruled Ferrara at the time of publication and granted Jews equal rights. The Jewish version was printed by the same two publishers, but in this version, they appear under their Hebrew names—Yom-Tob Atias (who some claim was Jerónimo de Vargas’ father) and Abraham Usque. In this version, the dedication is to Doña Gracia Nasi, the famous Portuguese converso and Jewish philanthropist. Doña Gracia may have funded the project or supported it in other ways.
The dedication to Doña Gracia Nasi in the Jewish version of the Ferrara Bible
In the colophon – the final note attached to a book or manuscript summarizing its production process—some copies have the year written as 1553, while others have it written as the corresponding year in the Hebrew calendar, 5313.
In the colophon at the end of this version of the book, the year is written in its Hebrew form – 5313.
However, the differences between the two versions of the Ferrara Bible don’t stop there. For example, they were printed in two different sizes and on different types of paper.
In the 1950s, Professor Stanley Rypins, a scholar of English literature, conducted a thorough examination of the existing copies of the Ferrara Bible. He found 49 different copies around the world and demonstrated that there were many differences among them, though most of these differences were small and insignificant.
Contrary to the assumptions of past scholars that the Ferrara Bible had both a Jewish and a Christian version, Rypins argued that there was in fact no version specifically tailored for Christian readers. On the contrary, over the years, some have even claimed that this Bible is anti-Christian and that the translations of certain verses that have been interpreted as a historical basis for Christianity maintain the original literal text, in an effort to undermine official Christian doctrine.
Nevertheless, in some copies, there is one significant change favoring Christian dogma. One of the verses used in Christianity for missionary purposes appears in the Book of Isaiah, chapter 7, verse 14. In the original, it reads as follows:
“Behold, the young woman is with child, and she shall bear a son, and she shall call his name Immanuel.”
In Christian literature, the verse was translated according to Christian theology, which asserts that Jesus’ mother is the Virgin Mary:
“Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
In some copies of the Ferrara Bible, the Hebrew word almah is translated into Spanish as moca (young woman). In others, it is translated as virgen (virgin), and in most cases, the printers simply wrote alma in Roman letters, thus avoiding controversy. In about half of the copies found, the word alma appeared, and Rypins demonstrated that this was how the Bible was originally printed. He claimed that the word was later changed to virgen, likely for political-religious reasons, and after several printings, to moca. Each change required the printer to adjust the font to maintain a uniform length of the row of text. To achieve this, abbreviated words were sometimes expanded to their full forms, and sometimes small spaces were added between words.
The three versions of translations for the word alma (the first word in the verse). From an article by Professor Rypins.
Throughout the period of publication, errors in page order and typos were corrected in the various printed copies that were released. Nevertheless, typographical errors can still be found here and there in some of the copies. Rypins viewed all these issues as proof that the different editions of the Ferrara Bible were indicative of an ongoing process of corrections; it wasn’t that there were two versions, each intended for a different audience, rather – all copies of the Ferrara Bible were intended for Spanish and Portuguese conversos in the mid-16th century. In the copies Rypins found, it was also evident that due to the prohibition against writing or pronouncing the name of God unnecessarily, most copies used the capital letter “A” as a substitute for the name. Some copies also included a list of the weekly Haftarah portions read in the synagogue.
God’s name written as the capital letter “A”, from the beginning of the Va’etchanan portion in the Ferrara Bible
The illustrated title page of the Ferrara Bible includes a drawing of a ship being tossed about by stormy waters at sea. One of its masts is broken, and it is surrounded by waves, gusts of wind, and sea monsters. The illustration alludes to the situation of the Jewish People in general and the conversos of Spain and Portugal in particular. The printers were hinting at the eternal nature of Judaism, which is forced to fight against its spiritual enemies but manages to survive and persevere despite it all.
The title page of the Ferrara Bible. The ship being wrecked at sea symbolizes the Jewish People.
The ship is also depicted with an armillary sphere, an instrument that serves as a model of objects in the sky and which was used in maritime navigation. The armillary sphere was the symbol of Abraham Usque’s printing house and appears in other books he printed as well.
Usque published over 25 books before his printing house was closed in 1558. One of his books, Shiltei Giborim (“The Signs of Heroes”) by Rabbi Yaacov Ben Yoav Elia of Pano, included a lamentation for 24 conversos who were executed in Ancona in 1556. News of this lamentation reached the ears of Bishop Antonio Ghislieri (later, Pope Pius V), who then demanded that the book be burned and Usque be punished.
From the lamentation for the martyrs of Ancona, Shiltei Giborim, Ferrara 1556.
In 1996, literary and theater scholar Moshe Lazar published an accurate facsimile edition (that is, a new print completely identical to the original) of the Ferrara Bible, with a print run of 1,000 copies. Earlier, in 1992, to mark the 500th commemoration of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, Lazar released a critical edition (one that traces all known editions) of the Ferrara Bible. In the introduction, Lazar wrote that to prepare this edition, he located some 60 copies of the Bible. These copies and others, which might still be circulating and unaccounted for in remote parts of the world, helped the conversos of Spain and Portugal return to Judaism in the 16th century.
Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai’s Choice: Jerusalem or the Jewish People?
Shortly before the destruction of the Second Temple, with Jerusalem under siege by the Romans, Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai made a very difficult decision, leaving his beloved and holy city behind to its fate. Feeling he could not save it, he decided to try something different in an attempt to keep the Jewish People alive.
Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai and Abba Sikra. From the film "Legend of Destruction". Paintings: David Polonsky, Michael Faust
At the end of the Second Temple era, with Jerusalem besieged by the Roman army, the wealthy of the city donated all the food in their warehouses to the public. In doing so, they hoped the Jews of the city would have what they needed to survive the siege.
The Jewish zealots had other plans, and they set fire to the stocks of food. Comfort and convenience do not maintain the spark of rebellion, and so they needed to be snuffed out. The rebels were seeking hunger, anger, rage. These are the things that nourish rebellion.
As hunger began to increase, Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai, a leader of the moderate camp, summoned the leader of the zealots, Abba Sikra, to try and find a solution. The Gemara explains that this happened privately. No-one knew about the meeting but the two of them.
Abba Sikra (or Sikkara) is the name the Jewish sages attached to one of the leaders of the rebellion, who was named Ben Batich (or Batiach). This mysterious person was likely linked to the sect known as the Sicarii. The Gemara tells of his large and exceptionally imposing figure and how his fist was the size of an average man’s head.
The Sicarii were a sect of zealots who fought the Romans and who are primarily famous for their role in the last stand of Jewish rebels at the desert fortress of Masada, where many of them eventually committed suicide.
But Abba Sikra was also a blood relative of Yochanan Ben Zakkai – he was the son of the Rabbi’s sister. Thus did two members of the same family find themselves leading opposite sides in the bitter divide which had torn the Jewish People apart during an existential war. Now they came together in a desperate attempt to salvage what was possible.
“Why do you act in such a manner? Will you kill us by famine?” Ben Zakkai asked Abba Sikra in their secret meeting (Gittin 56a). The rebel leader suddenly didn’t seem so tough. He shrugged his shoulders and replied “What shall I do? If I tell them anything of the kind, they will slay me.”
The rebel leader admitted to his uncle that he had little sway over his soldiers, who were so caught up in the fight that even he couldn’t get them to think of doing otherwise.
With the hope of saving Jerusalem gone, Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai understood that he had no choice but to leave the city. Consulting his nephew, the rebel leader, he asked him to think of some solution, some way to get him out. The only way out, Abba Sikra explained, was death.
And this is exactly what Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai did. He disguised himself as a shrouded corpse, asking his two faithful students – Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabbi Eliezer – to take him outside the walls, ostensibly to bury him there. Once out, he met with the Roman general and future emperor Vespasian, who was besieging the city. Ben Zakkai asked the general to give him the town of Yavneh and its sages, guaranteeing the survival of a remnant of a glorious nation whose world had been destroyed.
Grave of Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai in Tiberias. Photo: Rudi Weissenstein, all rights reserved for the Photohouse, the Pritzker Family National Photography Collection, National Library of Israel
There, at Yavneh, Yochanan Ben Zakkai created the Jewish world as it would continue to exist for the next two thousand years. He rebuilt Judaism after the destruction. Some say the Jewish People still exists thanks to him.
But some judge him more harshly, and Ben Zakkai’s actions have been the subject of much criticism over the generations. Should he not have fought harder for Jerusalem and the Holy Temple? Maybe he shouldn’t have given up, instead working to convince the Roman general to not destroy his city? For all the criticism, though, there was widespread recognition among the Jewish sages that Judaism was still alive and kicking thanks to him.
A 19th century photo of the entrance to a burial cave in what is today Sanhedria Park, in the heart of the neighborhood of Sanhedria in north Jerusalem. From the Lenkin Family Collection at the University of Pennsylvania Library, the Pritzker Family National Photography Collection, the National Library of Israel
Generations of Israelis have been raised on the story of Masada, which tells of how the rebels resisted to the last drop of blood, and preferred to take their own lives rather than surrender. But even as these zealots and extremists were taking drastic action which would be mythologized for centuries, Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai and his students were sitting in Yavneh and studying. They chose a different option, one which exalts moderation and the ability to find solutions, even in the midst of an existential conflict.
What can we learn from Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai? He teaches us that even if reality is complex and difficult, one can always find a solution, regardless of what side you’re on.
The 9th of Av (Tisha B’Av), the day of the Hebrew calendar on which the Holy Temple was destroyed, is an appropriate day for placing faith in the Jewish People, who survived the destruction and pogroms and always managed to continue marching forward.
