Rabban Gamaliel II (also spelled Gamliel; Hebrew: רבן גמליאל דיבנה; before c. 80–c. 118) was a rabbi from the second generation of tannaim. He was the first person to lead the Sanhedrin as nasi after the fall of the Second Temple in 70 CE.
He was the son of Shimon ben Gamaliel, one of Jerusalem's foremost men in the war against the Romans, and grandson of Gamaliel I. To distinguish him from the latter he is also called Gamliel of Yavne.
The av beit din (Hebrew: אָב בֵּית דִּין, romanized: ʾāḇ bēṯ din, lit. 'chief of the court, chief justice'), abbreviated abd (אב״ד avad), was the second-highest-ranking member of the Sanhedrin during the Second Temple period and served as an assistant to the nasi. The av beit din was known as the "Master of the Court;" he was considered the most learned and important of these seventy members.
Menahem the Essene served as av beit din in the 1st century BC before abdicating to "serve the King" in 20 BC. The House of Shammai attained complete ascendency over the Sanhedrin from 9 CE until Gamaliel became nasi in 30 CE. The post of av beit din was eventually filled since the Babylonian Talmud states that Joshua ben Hananiah was the av beit din in Baba Kamma 74b and Nathan the Babylonian was av beit din in Horayot 13b in the Babylonian Talmud. The Jerusalem Talmud tells the story of how Gamaliel II was deposed and Eleazar ben Azariah replaced him as Nasi. After Gamaliel was reinstated, Eleazar ben Azariah was made av beit din. The parallel story in the Babylonian Talmud has Eleazar ben Azariah remaining as a co-nasi with Gamaliel.
Yavne (Hebrew: יַבְנֶה) is a city in the Central District of Israel. In 2023 it had a population of 57,725.
Modern Yavne was established in 1949. It is located near the ruins of the ancient town of Yibna (known also as Jamnia and Jabneh), later the village of Yibna, and today the archeological site of Tel Yavne. Ancient Yavne holds a special place in Jewish history because of the ancient town's contribution to Judaism's recovery and reconstitution under sages ben Zakkai and Gamaliel II following the destruction of the Second Temple. This period, sometimes known as the "Yavne period", became a crucial mark in the development of Rabbinic Judaism. The city has a history of producing wine throughout much of antiquity, as indicated by both archeological findings and ancient sources.
Eleazar ben Azariah (Hebrew: אלעזר בן עזריה) was a 1st-century CE Jewish tanna, i.e. Mishnaic sage. He was of the second generation and a junior contemporary of Gamaliel II, Eliezer b. Hyrcanus, Joshua b. Hananiah, and Akiva.