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Who is ben Zakkai?
The Gemara is reluctant to identify him with the great tanna, Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai, since the story in the Mishna places him as a member of the Sanhedrin dealing with capital cases, while we have a tradition that of the 120 years of his life Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai spent the first 40 as a businessman, the next 40 as a student and the final 40 as a teacher.
Furthermore we know that the Sanhedrin moved from its location on the Temple Mount and ceased to try capital cases 40 years before the destruction (see Rosh HaShana 31b), yet Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai was active as a teacher and leader of the Jewish community after the destruction of the Second Temple.
The Gemara concludes that he must have presented his idea of asking questions of bedikot that include such detailed information while he was still a student and was called simply ben Zakkai.
We explore this paradoxical character through the eyes of modern scholarship.