Avot119

7:
Titus, the rest of the country having been more or less completely 'pacified', now put Jerusalem under siege. But, in fact the siege worked both ways: not only would the Romans not let anyone or anything in, but the extreme right-wing Zealots, who were in complete control of Jerusalem would not let anyone or anything out. The Zealots knew that if it were possible for the inhabitants of Jerusalem to leave the city would be emptied in no time at all of all except the Zealots themselves. Thus, even though food supplies were down almost to nothing and even thought the dead were being piled up in the streets unburied and even though disease was rampant the Zealot commanders of the city would not let anyone breach the self-imposed siege. If help were to come in could only come from God, and if God did not help then let all perish together in the bloodbath that would inevitably come.

8:
One inhabitant of Jerusalem refused to accept this state of affairs. He realized that the Romans were going to take the city sooner or later; but he also realized that steps must be taken to ensure the survival of the Jewish people and their traditions even after the inevitable destruction of the city and the Temple. That person was Rabban Yoĥanan ben-Zakkai. The Gemara [Gittin 56a] reports that Rabban Yoĥanan ben-Zakkai had a nephew who was one of the leaders of the Zealots. The sage asked for a secret meeting with his nephew. When the two met the rabbi accosted his nephew: "How long are you going to continue like this, killing everyone off by starvation?" Abba Sikra ("Father Daggerman", clearly the nephew's title in the terrorist groups) responded, "What can I do? If I say anything to them they will kill me!" The sage persisted: "Find me some way of getting out of the city; maybe I can salvage something."

9:
The rabbi and his nephew now concocted the following plan. Word would be circulated throughout the city that Rabban Yoĥanan ben-Zakkai had died. People would come to pay their condolences and view the body so he must secrete about his person some rotting meat so that the smell of decomposing flesh would be noticeable. Thereafter no one but the rabbi's two most prominent students, Yehoshu'a ben-Ĥananyah and Eli'ezer ben-Hyrkanos, might carry his bier so that no one would notice that the 'body' was lighter than a dead body should be.

10:
The plan was carried out and the two faithful students, destined to become two of the greatest scholars of the Tannaïtic age, carried their beloved (and stinking) teacher on a bier towards one of the gates of the city which were guarded by Zealot contingents.

To be continued.

In the discussion section of Avot 113 we learned a page of Gemara [Pesaĥim 49b] which contained derogatory comments by some of the sages concerning people who were Am ha-Aretz. Amnon Ronel has reacted very strongly and very negatively to these words. He writes:

I am full of disgust at the statement quoted and in my opinion it removes the speaker from the realm of human being, let alone a sage! The statement contains libel, incitement to murder and is a danger to the community. Therefore to speaker should be ostracized and imprisoned for life, for how can one be sure that when released he has truly given up his murderous views? Also from the halakhic point of view several mitzvot are being transgressed here: surely this would reduce the speaker himself to the level of an Am ha-Aretz.

Strong words. Instead of responding myself to Amnon's tirade I quote, instead, a more sedate comment sent to me by Nehama Barbiru which, I think, puts the whole matter into proportion. Nehama writes:

Concerning the passage that was quoted about the Am ha-Aretz. Yesterday evening I was present at an event during which a schoolgirl presented work she had written on the attitudes of both secular and religious people towards divorce. I mention this because she quoted from a brochure put out by Breslav Hassidim in which it was stated that people who get divorced are burning their children with their own hands. The passage goes on to say that the children will fall into bad company and will end up in jail. The language was very forceful and very colourful. A similar impression is gained from the passage from the Gemara which was quoted. In my opinion in both cases we are dealing with exaggerations whose purpose is to scare simple folk – people who observe mitzvot because that is what they have been taught to do but do not properly understand the halakhah. Such people do not have the abilities needed to examine the truth of the statements and therefore just accept them as "Torah from Sinai".