ABSTRACT
The fall of the temple in 70 brought the Second Temple period formally to an end. In retrospect, we see that destruction of the temple as symbolic of the end of an era, from whose ashes a new entity grew up and became the Judaism that survives to the present time. Yet the Jewish people of the time did not have the benefit of such hindsight. Some mourned the ruined temple but also expected God to intervene supernaturally in the near future to set things right. Others saw an opportunity to establish their own ideas in the religious power vacuum that suddenly emerged. Unfortunately, we do not have the vision of Yohanan ben Zakkai left for us in his own handwriting. What he expected to accomplish at Yavneh can only be guessed at, yet what happened in that small coastal town had repercussions for the entire history of Judaism.
