place · L0022

Yavneh יבנה

Coastal-plain town that became the seat of the Sanhedrin and the center of rabbinic Judaism between 70 and 132 CE. Known in Greek and Roman sources as Jamnia.

I. Who

Hebrew
יבנה
Also known as
Jamnia, Iamnia

III. Where

Modern location
Yavne, Israel

IV. What

Events
The Great Revolt

V. How do we know

ClaimEvidenceConfidenceSources
Yavneh (Jamnia) was a town of Judea attested in Greco-Roman sources; Vespasian stationed submissive Jews there during the war. external ★★★★☆
The Talmud recounts that Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, smuggled out of besieged Jerusalem, asked of Vespasian: "Give me Yavneh and its sages" — the tradition's account of how the center of Torah passed from Jerusalem to Yavneh.
Aggadic narrative told in several versions; historians debate its details, but it is the tradition's charter for the Yavneh era.
rabbinic ★★★★☆

Referenced by: Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananiah, Rabban Gamliel of Yavneh, Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah, Shmuel HaKatan, Academy of Yavneh