Life
Yohanan ben Zakkai (1st century CE), a disciple of Hillel, is credited by tradition with escaping besieged Jerusalem (carried out, the story goes, in a coffin) to obtain Roman permission to establish an academy at Yavneh. There, after the Temple's destruction in 70 CE, he reconstituted the Sanhedrin and reoriented Judaism from Temple sacrifice toward Torah study, prayer, and acts of loving-kindness — a pivotal act that allowed rabbinic Judaism to survive the catastrophe.