Summary: First-ever ancient building remains have been discovered in Yavne, the home of the Sanhedrin after the destruction of the Temple in AD 70.
When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin—the full assembly of the elders of Israel. – Acts 5:21 (NIV)
Jewish Life Without the Temple
After the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in AD 70, Jewish life had to be dramatically readjusted to the reality of a nation without its central holy site.
The primary religious leader at the time was Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai who reconstructed the Sanhedrin academy in the city of Yavne, making it a major spiritual center. Because of this, the Jewish people emerged from the conflict with their religious leadership and infrastructure intact, allowing them to survive throughout the ages.
“It can be said that the foundations of Judaism as we know it today were laid in Yavne,” said the excavation directors, Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) archeologists Pablo Betzer and Dr. Daniel Varga.
The Sanhedrin were the supreme Jewish legislative assemblies that ruled over ancient Israel. During the Second Temple period, the Great Sanhedrin of 71 elders met in the Temple every day except on festivals and the Sabbath. The Lesser Sanhedrin consisted of 23 judges that sat as a tribunal in each city.
Recently, 2,000-year-old remains from the relocated Sanhedrin have been discovered in Yavne. “For the first time ever in Yavne, the excavations discovered an industrial building dating from the 1st–3rd centuries CE,” the IAA researchers said.
Inside the building, archaeologists found chalkstone cups that the IAA said were “clear evidence that its occupants were observing Jewish laws of ritual purity.”
“The floor contained several fragments of stoneware known as ‘measuring cups,’ vessels that retain their ritual purity and are identified with the Jewish population in the late Second Temple period and 2nd century CE,” they continued.
The discovery is “a direct voice from the past, from the period when the Jewish leadership salvaged the remaining fragments from the fall of the Temple, went into exile in Yavne, and set about re-establishing the Jewish people there.”
Cemetery of the Yavne Sages
A cemetery from the same period was also discovered nearby, about 80 yards from the building. The graveyard would likely have been outside the boundaries of the ancient city, in keeping with Jewish and Roman law, according to the researchers.
The tombs at the site were carefully arranged, suggesting there was probably “some official body that was responsible for burial,” Betzer and Varga explained. ”There are different types of tombs: some are coffins (sarcophagi), which are made mostly of stone with one lead coffin.”
The archeological finds suggest that these tombs were from the city’s Jewish community, although there are no ethnic symbols on the coffins. “If this hypothesis is correct, then at least some of the tombs, perhaps the most elaborate, may belong to the sages of Yavne, contemporaries of Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai, Rabbi Akiva and Rabban Gamliel,” the archaeologists said, naming three of the most famous rabbis of the Mishnah and Talmud.
A surprising find in the cemetery was over 150 glass vials discovered on top of the tombs. The large quantity and unique placement of the vials made them stand out from past finds. The vials likely held precious fragrant oils. Half were locally made, and the rest imported from Alexandria in Egypt.
“Vials of this type have been recovered in excavations at both Jewish and pagan burial sites from the 1st to the early 3rd centuries CE,” Yael Gorin-Rosen, head of the IAA’s glass department explained. “It is a mystery why the vials were placed outside the tombs in Yavne and not inside them, as was usual.”
“Give me Yavne and Its Sages”
The city of Yavne was one of the most important towns in the southern coastal plain. During the Hasmonean period (140 BC – 37 BC), the city held a vital role in the battles between Jewish Maccabean forces and the Greek Seleucid rulers. Josephus, the ancient historian, mentions Yavne several times in his writings. By the end of the Second Temple period, Yavne’s mixed population had mainly Jewish residents.
According to the Jewish Talmud, as the siege on Jerusalem was taking place, Sanhedrin leader, Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, escaped by faking his own death and then was smuggled out inside a coffin. This was possible because the Jewish rebels and Romans had an agreement that every night of the siege the dead would be allowed to be taken out of the city to be buried.
Bravely, the Rabbi then went to the Roman emperor Vespasian, who was the commander of the invading army, to ask for permission to set up the Sanhedrin in Yavne. As recorded in the Talmud, Ben Zakkai famously pleaded for the city with the phrase, “Give me Yavne and its sages.”
The influence of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai is still seen today in the many “remembrances to the Temple” he instituted. His decrees became part of the Jewish life and have remained so for over 1900 years.
In honor of the temple, Ben Zakkai forbade the seven-branched candelabra to be lit in the synagogue because the one in the Temple had seven branches. He also banned music in the synagogue as a memorial to the full orchestra that had been in the Temple.
He set up the center bima (the stage area where the Torah scroll rests while it is being read) in the synagogue as a symbol of the Temple’s altar which had stood in the center of the courtyard. These acts kept the Temple alive for the Jewish people and gave them hope that their nation and the Temple would rise again.
Yavne Archeological Finds Video
Conclusion
Yavne grew to be the center of Jewish life for many long years, after the destruction of the Second Temple up until the Bar Kokhba Revolt. Under Sanhedrin leaders such as Ben Zakkai and Rabbi Gamliel, Yavne became the place where Judaism itself survived and thrived.
“It is exciting to see ancient accounts of the Sanhedrin translated into actual evidence in the field, with vessels, installations and buildings,” said Eli Eskozido, director of the IAA. “We are sure that Yavne has not yet had the last say. Wherever archaeologists scrape the surface here, they encounter a find of national importance, with all that that entails.”
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TOP PHOTO: A coffin seen at a cemetery dating back to the days of the Sanhedrin in Yavne. (credit: Yaniv Berman/IAA)
