On a recent radio show in New York, the interviewer wanted to know how an orthodox rabbi continued to celebrate Thanksgiving despite a move to Israel. Instead of answering directly, I asked my questioner, an extremely devout Jew whose appearance shunned any compromises with modernity, why he continued to live in America instead of moving to Israel. The Jew in Israel who recalls his American roots by giving thanks to G-d on the last Thursday in November, or the Jew in the diaspora who keeps a good number of laws in profound, exact detail, while ignoring the basis for those laws in the first place, having reached the conclusion that Israel, in its modern manifestation, is not central to his existence. R. Yochanan ben Zakkai, one of the greatest of Jewish sages. Jerusalem is surrounded by Roman armies.
Destruction is imminent.
Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai sneaks his way out of the city to conduct talks with Vespasian, future emperor of Rome. Nonetheless, his successes do not mean that his decision to opt for Yavneh received universal acceptance. Professor Gedalya Allon, a leading Second Commonwealth historian, argues that many of R. Yochanan's contemporaries were embittered that he had given up too much too soon and did not join him in Yavneh until after the destruction of the Second Temple. Moreover, Rabban Gamliel served as head of the Yavneh Sanhedrin, and upon his arrival, Rabban Yochanan felt constrained to leave for Isror-Chayil, where he lived out his last years in relative obscurity. Speculation aside, we have to go no further than R. Yochanan prior to his death.