Rabbi Johanan beheld the starvation of the people of Jerusalem, and he held a secret conference with the leader of the Zealots. The leader said: “I have lost authority over the Zealots; if I should accept your counsel and advise surrender to them, they would slay me. I suggest that you pretend to sicken and die, and they shall permit your casket to leave the city.” When the Rabbi was outside the city, he asked to see the Roman commander, Vespasian. He greeted him with the words: “Peace unto you, O Caesar!” Vespasian answered: “Twice do you merit death. You have called me Caesar, though I am but a general; and you come not with a surrender.”
The Rabbi replied: “I am confident that God’s City will not fall into the hands of one less than the Emperor, and I cannot secure a surrender because of the misguided Zealots.
He was aksed in the form of a fable: “If there be a snake in a tower, what should be done?” He said: “A snake-charmer should be brought to draw forth the snake, so that the Tower be not harmed.” An Arabian general said: “A better way is to burn the Tower and the snake within it.”
Rabbi Johanan said to him: “You are a neighbor of Judea, and yet you advise that Jerusalem be destroyed.”
The general responded: “I offered this counsel for your good. As long as the Temple stands, nations will make war against you; when it is destroyed, you will have peace.”
Vespasian soon after received word that hea had been chose Emperor. He said to the Rabbi: “I will send my son in my place, but I wish to grant you a favor before I depart.” Rabbi Johanan asked three things: that when the walss of Jerusalem should fall, the Western Gate should be left open for four hours that refugees might leave through it; that an Academy be permitted at Jabneh with the House of Hillel in its Presidency; that physicians be sent to Rabbi Zadok who had fasted so long that he could no longer swallow food.
These favors were granted to Rabbi Johanan.
(Source: Talmud, Gittin, 56; Ekah Rabbaah, 1)
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