SIMON BAR KOKHBA was a leader of Jewish revolt against Rome in Judea, 132-135.
Background
There are few reliable sources about his life and most of what is known derives from Talmudic legends of his courage and heroism and from administrative and economic documents. The name Bar Kokhba (son of the star) probably alludes to the messianic hopes placed in him by Rabbi Akiva; his real name appears to have been Ben or Bar Koseva, which appears on contemporary documents. After the defeat, his name was given a derogatory interpretation, son of a lie (derived from the Hebrew kazav, lie).
Career
The revolt was provoked when the Roman Emperor Hadrian rebuilt Jerusalem as a Roman city, with a temple to Jupiter. This enraged the Jews who had dreamed of restoring their own temple there. He also restricted Torah study and Jewish religious observance, including a ban on circumcision. Within a short time, Bar Kokhba organized a revolt which covered the entire country and captured Jerusalem, minting coins, which he dated according to the year of “Jerusalem’s liberation” or “Israel’s redemption.”
Legend relates that in order to join his army, men were required to cut off a finger and that the rabbis, disapproving of the practice, suggested that in its place the men be required to uproot a cedar root.
After their initial setbacks, the Romans organized a large army of some 35,000 men that slowly retook the territory lost to Bar Kokhba, including Jerusalem. The cruel war, which lasted three and a half years and was supported by the Jews in the Diaspora, approached its end with Bar Kokhba besieged in Bethar, in the Judean Hills. When this fortress finally fell, Bar Kokhba was killed, traditionally on the Ninth of Av (anniversary of the destruction of the two temples) in 135. There were said to have been 585,000 Jewish casualties, apart from those who died of disease and hunger.
The aftermath of the war saw cruel repressions by Hadrian that desolated Judea, turned Jerusalem into a heathen town, and imposed severe restrictions on the practice of Judaism. Bar Kokhba was retained in Jewish memory as a great folk hero, but as the Roman repression made it unsafe to commit to writing details of his revolt, information about him is sketchy. The popular semifestival of Lag ba’Omer seems to commemorate the revolt but the exact connection is unknown.
Religion
There is historical evidence that he was indeed a religious man. In recent years, signed letters from him have been found in the Judean desert, addressed to one of his commanders, reminding him to separate the tithe and to provide Sabbath accommodation for visitors.
Personality
He had the reputation of being an autocratic and domineering ruler, requiring total obedience to his authority and total commitment to ending Roman rule of Judea and reestablishing the Temple.
Saint Jerome wrote that Bar Kohba used to keep fanning a lighted blade of straw in his mouth to give the impression that he was spewing out flames. From stories such as this emerges the picture of Bar Kokhba as a driven and uncompromising leader. He seems to have been arrogant and hot-tempered.
Another legend relates that he relied more on his own power than that of God, and that when greeted with the greeting “God will help” on going into battle, responded “God will neither assist nor weaken.”