רבי זכריה בן אבקולס

Zechariah ben Abkilus was a Jewish scholar at the end of the Second Temple period. He lived in Jerusalem at the time of the destruction of the Second Temple. According to the Talmud, the authority which he enjoyed among the rabbis of Jerusalem was the cause of the downfall of the city. According to Lamentations Rabbah, Zechariah was present at the banquet famous for the affair of Kamsa and Bar Kamsa; and though his influence might have prevented the disgrace of Bar Ḳamtza, he did not exercise it. According to the Talmudic account of the episode, when a calf sent by the emperor was blemished by Bar Ḳamtza prior to being received as an offering to the Temple, the Rabbis would have accepted it to frustrate Bar Ḳamtza, had not Zechariah, ruled against this out of concern of setting an erroneous precedent for later generations.