(fl. 1st-2nd cent)
Palestinian tanna. During the siege of Jerusalem (70), he helped his teacher Johanan ben Zakkai, to escape. Favoured by the Romans, he travelled repeatedly to Rome on national missions to aid the Jewish cause. After the death of Gamaliel II he became av bet din at the Jabneh academy. His polemical debates with Christians are recorded in rabbinic literature. For some time he had a school in Pekün.
Dictionary of Jewish Biography. Dan Cohn-Sherbok.