Abba
Sikara, the head of the rebels of Jerusalem, was the nephew
of Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai. [Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai]
sent for him [saying,] "Come secretly to me."
He [Abba Sikara] came [to Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai] who
said to him, "Until when will you do this, killing everybody
with famine?"
He [Abba Sikara] said to him: "What should I do? For if
I say anything to them, they will kill me."
He [Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai] said to him, "Devise a plan
for me that I may go out; maybe there could at least be
a small [chance for] salvation."
[Abba Sikara] said to him: "Let it be known that you are
deathly ill and everybody will come to ask about you. Take
a stinking object and keep it by you, so that they will
say that you have died. Let your students bear you, and
let no other man bear you so that none may sense how light
you are, for they [the rebels] know that a live man is lighter
than a dead one."
[Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai] did so. Rabbi Eleazar carried
him on one side and Rabbi Joshua on the other side. When
they came to the city entrance, [the rebel guards] wanted
to pierce the [body to ensure that he was dead].
[Abba Sikara] said to them, "[The Romans] will say that
[the rebels even] pierced their [own] rabbi!"
They wanted to push him [to see if he would cry out].
[Abba Sikara] said to them, "[The Romans] will say that
they pushed their [own] rabbi!"
[The guards] opened the gate and they went out.
When [Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai] arrived [at the Roman camp],
he said, "Peace unto you, King; Peace unto you, King."
[Vespasian] said to him, "You are twice guilty of a capital
crime. Once, because I am not a king and you called me king.
And further, because if I am a king, why did you not come
to me until now?"
[Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai] said to [Vespasian], "That which
you have said, 'I am not the king,' certainly you are a
king! If you were not a king, Jerusalem would not have been
given into your hands. For it is written, 'And Lebanon by
a mighty one will fall' (Is. 10:34). 'A mighty one' is none
other than a king, for it is written, 'their mighty one
shall be of themselves [and its ruler shall go out from
its midst]' (Jer. 30:21). And Lebanon is none other than
the Temple, for it is said, 'This good mountain and the
Lebanon' (Deut. 3:25). And as to what you have said, 'If
I am a king why did you not come to me until now?' Until
now, the rebels among us would not permit it."
[Vespasian] said to [Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai], "If there
is a jug of honey and a serpent is coiled upon it, "do
they not break the jug in order to kill the snake?"
[Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai] was silent.
Rabbi Joseph, and some say Rabbi Akiva, applied this verse
to him: "He sends sages backward and confuses their minds"
(Is. 44:25). [Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai] should have said,
"We take tongs and grip the snake and kill it, and the jug
we may retain for ourselves."
Meanwhile, a messenger came to him [Vespasian] from Rome.
He said to him, "Rise, because Caesar
has died and the prominent men of Rome have decided to seat
you at their head [as the new Caesar]...."
[Vespasian] said to him, "And now that you are so smart,
why did you not come to see me until now?"
[Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai] said to him, "Did I not tell
you?"
[Vespasian] said to him, "I
also answered you."
[Vespasian] said, "I will go and send someone to take my
place. But ask something of me that I may grant it to you."
[Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai] said to him, "Give me Yavneh
and its sages, the
chain of Rabban Gamliel, and doctors
to cure Rabbi Zadok."
Rabbi Joseph, and some say Rabbi Akiva, applied this verse
to him: "He sends sages backward and confuses their minds"
(Is. 44:25). He should have asked that [Jerusalem] be left
alone this once. But [Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai must have]
thought, "Lest all this not be granted and then there may
not be even a small [chance for] salvation...."
