A famous phrase attributed to Raban Yoḥanán ben Zakkaithat sums up your spiritual vision and ethics, is located in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) 2:8:

“If you have learned much Torah, do not atribuyas any merit, because to this you were created.”
(Pirkei Avot 2:8)

Rabban Yoḥanán ben Zakkai: life, work and teachings

1) Identity and time

Rabban Yoḥanán ben Zakkai (siglo I d. C.) was a tanna sage of the time of the Mishnah) formed in the tradition of Hillel and Shamai. Historiography and the rabbinical traditions present him as a key figure in the transition from judaism after the destruction of the Second Temple (ad 70), to found/to organize the academy and the leadership rabbinical Yavne (Jamnia).

2) Sources and reliability

• Primary rabbinical: Mishnah/Talmud (e.g., Avot 2:8-12 on their ethics and disciples; Guitín 56a on “give me Yavne and its sages”; Suká 41a and Rosh Hashanah 29b on your decrees).
• Encyclopedias and synthesis: Britannica; Jewish Virtual Library (Encyclopaedia Judaica).
• Note historiographical: the so-called “Council of Jamnia” as a formal event today is much disputed; so robust is the centrality of Yavne leadership and rabbinic post-70.

3) Life (synthesis chronological)

• Training: Rabbinic tradition places him as a disciple highlight of Hillel; it has been described as the “father of the wisdom and of the generations”, highlighting the role of the continuity doctrine.
• Siege of Jerusalem and out of the roman camp: The narrative talmudic story of his departure from the Jerusalem besieged, and his interview with Vespasian. There request “Yavne and its sages”, as well as to preserve the dynasty of Rabban Gamliel and heal Rabbi Tzadok. This order is a turning point and institutional.
• Yavne (Jamnia): Under his aegis, Yavne was consolidated as a center of study, law and leadership, replacing the axis of worship of the Temple by the tripod Torah–Tefillah–Halachah. The historiography recognizes Yavne as the cradle of the stage classic rabbinical judaism.

4) institutional and “takanot” (decrees) key

After the destruction of the Temple, Rabban Yoḥanán issued decrees to reorganize the religious life and memorializar the worship of the Sanctuary in the diaspora and in the province:

1. Lulav seven days outside the Temple, “zekher the-Mikdash” (the commemoration of the Sanctuary). Before it was 7 days only in the Temple, and 1 day off; he stretched out 7 days are also out.
2. Shofar on Shabbat when Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat, allowed in places with Beit Din (rabbinical court), displacing the exclusivity of the Temple.
3. Omer/new grain: established that the new grain remains prohibited throughout the 16th day of Nisan (after the destruction, to avoid confusion without the rite of the Omer).

These settings show a engineering halachic oriented to preserve continuity of identity without a Temple, recreating practices commemorative standards and procedural consolidated the model sinagogal/academic.

5) School and disciples

Avot 2 highlights five principal disciples: R. Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, R. r. joshua ben Jananiá, R. Yosé haKohén, R. Shimon ben Netanel and R. Elazar ben Arakh. This generation articulated the foundations of the Mishnah and of the Halachah post-Temple.

6) ethical Teachings and doctrinal (core)

• Intellectual humility: “If you learned a lot of Torah, don't atribuyas meritbecause that's what you were created” (Avot 2:8). Central message: the Torah is a vocation, not capital of prestige.
• The “derech yeshará” (the straight path): poses exercising pedagogical identify the human quality most all-encompassing; accepts R. Elazar ben Arakh: lev tov (“good heart”) to include the other (look generous, good colleague/neighbor, forecasting). Avot 2:9-10.
• Formation of character and forecast moral: Between the responses of their students figure “roeh et hanolad” (see what we will be born/to anticipate consequences), key to the ethics of responsibility.
• Academic requirements encyclopedic: Sources talmudic exalt his breadth of knowledge (model for the Sanhedrin: domain of languages and disciplines), reinforcing the ideal of authority collegial and competent.

7) intellectual Profile and leadership

The combination of political pragmatism (safeguard Yavne), and vision halachic (takanot adaptive) explains its enduring influence. Fall leaves to turn around the service sacrificial and is restructured around the study, deliberation legal and the synagogue. Britannica summarizes their impact as “essential for the continuity of traditional judaism” after 70.

8) historiographical Debates (Yavne/Jamnia and the canon)

Thesis classical “Council of Jamnia” that would have closed the canon of scripture in a formal way, was very influential in the TWENTIETH century, but today it is heavily nuanced or discarded: more than a council definitory, there was process and academic authority in Yavne, which consolidated practices and criteria, without “act” canonical single.

9) Legacy

• Institutional: The transition of leadership to Yavne and the Sanhedrin rabbinical, scaffolding to the Mishnah (compiled later) and for the judaism of the synagogue.
• Liturgy and practice: Decrees on shofar, lulav and omer that set the standard and still in force (with its nuances community).
• Ethics: The pedagogy of the lev tov and the humility of the scholar became the slogans of training mussar and rabbinic education.