Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai

Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai was the youngest disciple of Hillel (Sukkah 28a) and led Jewish scholarship through the destruction of the Second Temple. The Talmud (Gittin 56a–b) tells that during the Roman siege of Jerusalem his students Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua smuggled him out in a coffin. Brought before Vespasian, he greeted him as emperor, and when news of his accession arrived Vespasian granted him a request: "Give me Yavneh and its sages, the family of Rabban Gamliel, and doctors to heal Rabbi Tzadok."

At Yavneh he rebuilt Jewish life without the Temple. His enactments included blowing the shofar on a Rosh Hashanah that falls on Shabbat wherever a rabbinic court sat, and taking the lulav on all seven days of Sukkot everywhere "in memory of the Temple" (Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 4:1–3). Pirkei Avot 2:8 lists his five great disciples and his saying, "If you have learned much Torah, do not take credit for yourself, for this is why you were created." On his deathbed he wept, unsure which path awaited him, and blessed his students that their fear of Heaven be as great as their fear of people (Berakhot 28b).