Josephus on Trial
The following is from Shlomo Avineri’s article in Haaretz on the new translation of Josephus. (hat tip)
Like every self-respecting Israeli youth movement, my Hanoar Ha’oved branch in Herzliya also held a mock trial for Josephus Flavius, aka Yosef Ben-Matityahu, under the heading “traitor or hero?” The unique thing about our particular trial was that it had two defendants: not only Josephus – the commander of Jewish forces in the Galilee in the first century C.E., who after the fall of Yodfat went over to the Roman side – but also Rabbi Yohanan Ben Zakkai, who fled a besieged Jerusalem to the camp of the besieging 10th Legion, and asked that “Yavneh and its sages” be spared; his wish was granted. Having both figures as defendants made our trial more complicated and interesting, especially since it was held in late 1948, during the charged days of Israel’s War of Independence.
Ideology aside, what a great youth movement peulah. Avineri is an intellectual giant and this column, as with probably all of his writings, contains some interesting insights.