he had to spend his first year mopping up the last of the rebels. Kantor, Morris. The Bar Kokhba revolt marked a time of high hopes followed by violent despair. Here we see a reflection of the ancient concept of two messiahs, a lay and a priestly figure, prominent in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and in certain Qumran scrolls. In 135 C.E., Hadrian’s army besieged Bethar and on the 9th of Av, the Jewish fast day commemorating the destruction of the first and second Holy Temples, the walls of Bethar fell. The revolt did not begin until it had found its leader. He had active support of most of the rabbis … It was not until the reign of the Roman emperor Trajan (98-­117 C.E.) he Bar Kokhba revolt (Hebrew: מרד בר כוכבא‎ or mered Bar Kokhba), was a rebellion of the Jews of Judea Province, led by Simon bar Kokhba, against the Roman Empire. After a fierce battle, every Jew in Bethar was killed. The first conflict, known as the Jewish War or the First Revolt, was fought from A.D. 66 to 70; the second conflict, known as the Bar Kokhba War, raged from A.D. 132 to 135. The Bar Kokhba Revolt broke out in 132 C.E., 62 years after the subjection of Judea and Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple by Titus, and continued for three and half years. Bar Kokhba This revolt began as small, spontaneous clashes between Jews and Roman forces. The war began as a guerrilla struggle against Rome in 132 C.E. Coin of Bar Kochba, with the temple and a Messianic star. Bar Kokhba, original name Simeon Bar Kosba, Kosba also spelled Koseba, Kosiba, or Kochba, also called Bar Koziba, (died 135 ce), Jewish leader who led a bitter but unsuccessful revolt (132–135 ce) against Roman dominion in Judaea. Watch our explainer video to learn more about this important piece of Jewish history. “Bar Kokba and Bar Kokba War.” Funk and Wagnalls Co. London, 1902. Killing more than half a million Jews and destroying almost a thousand villages, the Bar Kochba Revolt (132-35) was a major event in Jewish history and a blotch on the reputation of the good emperor Hadrian.The revolt was named for a man called Shimon, on coins, Bar Kosibah, on papyrus, Bar Kozibah, on rabbinic literature, and Bar Kokhba, in Christian writing. The tannaim were divided, some supporting his rebellion, others not. From letters and documents unearthed in the Judean Desert we know the real name of the leader to have been Simeon bar Kosiba. A History of the Jewish People. As long as Hadrian remained near Judea, the Jews stayed relatively quiet. In 115‑117 C.E., while Trajan was occupied in Mesopotamia, Jews throughout the Diaspora rose up against their non‑Jewish neighbors in a violent confrontation. The rebellion was crushed by the Roman commander Julius Severus. When the Roman author Cornelius Fronto wrote a letter to the emperor Marcus Aurelius on the occasion of the destruction of a legion by the Parthians (in 162 AD), he compared it to the Bar Kochba revolt, implicitly admitting that the latter had been a defeat. Before long pitched battles were being fought in Egypt. Bar Kochba. The Bar Kochba Revolt was a Jewish rebellion, led by Simon bar Kochba, against the Roman Empire that ultimately failed. Those that exist in Talmud, Midrash and Church Father Euseblus are largely legendary. Bar Kokhba Revolt coinage were coins issued by the Judaean rebel state, headed by Simon Bar Kokhba, during the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Roman Empire of 132-135 AD. Hadrian dispatched General Publus Marcellus, governor of Syria, to help Rufus, but the Jews defeated both Roman leaders. The Jewish Time Line Encyclopedia. These developments took place despite the separation of Judea from the province of Syria and the appoint­ment of higher‑level Roman governors of senatorial rank. The Zionist youth movement Betar took its name from Bar-Kokhba's traditional last stronghold, and David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, took his Hebrew last name from one of Bar-Kokhba's generals. From Text to Tradition: A History of Second Temple & Rabbinic Judaism. From references in the Talmud, the Dead Sea Scrolls , and Roman sources, he emerges as a self-confident and decisive but temperamental man of great vigor and valor. all credit goes to dovahhaty https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCdZY83VtDv0WieDHLyXrlNQ According to the Christian church historian Eusebius (c.260-c.340), Simon claimed to be a luminary who had come down to the Jews from heaven (History of the church 4.6.2). The revolt did not begin until it had found its leader. The Bar Kokhba revolt (Hebrew: מֶרֶד בַּר כּוֹכְבָא ‎; Mered Bar Kokhba) was a rebellion of the Jews of the Roman province of Judea, led by Simon bar Kokhba, against the Roman Empire.Fought circa 132–136 CE, [5] it was the last of three major Jewish–Roman wars, so it is also known as The Third Jewish–Roman War or The Third Jewish Revolt. Shimon Bar-Kokhba was the leader of the Jewish revolt against Rome between 132 and 135 C.E. Simeon Bar Kochba is surrounded by legend, and little is known of his life. There are few sources about Bar-Kokhba. Sources: Encyclopedia Judaica. He first reconquered the Galilee to cut the Romans off from the sea. The Jews organized guerilla forces and, in 123 C.E., began launching surprise attacks against the Romans. Ben Sasson, Editor. The failure of the revolt is considered by many to be the start of the Jewish diaspora. Nonetheless, Bar Kochba has remained alive in historical memory. Little is known of the actual course of the revolt and of Rome’s successful attempt to regain control. Killing more than half a million Jews and destroying almost a thousand villages, the Bar Kochba Revolt (132-35) was a major event in Jewish history and a blotch on the reputation of the good emperor Hadrian.The revolt was named for a man called Shimon, on coins, Bar Kosibah, on papyrus, Bar Kozibah, on rabbinic literature, and Bar Kokhba, in Christian writing. Bar Kokhba Revolt: The revolt of 132-135 A. D. began with promise, after years Rome finally exacted a blood vengeance by General Severus. The Jewish leaders carefully planned the second revolt to avoid numerous mistakes that had plagued the first Great Jewish Revolt sixty years earlier. The sobriquet Bar Kokhba, “Son of a Star,” was given to him in accord with Num. He also began deporting Jews to North Africa. We know from the documents that the country was organized into administrative districts, that taxes were collected, and that governmental operations were carried out by Bar Kochba’s supporters. Fought circa 132-136 CE, it was the last of three major Jewish-Roman wars, so it is also known as The Third Jewish-Roman War or The Third Jewish Revolt. Similar disturbances fol­lowed in Cyprus and Mesopotamia. In the course of the revolt, the rebels took 50 fortifications. Under the strong leadership of Shimon Bar-Kokhba, the Jews captured approximately 50 strongholds in Judea and 985 undefended towns and villages, including Jerusalem. Early in the time of Hadrian there was an abortive attempt to rebuild the Jerusalem Temple, believed by some scholars to have had Hadrian’s support. Jewish outrage at his actions led to one of the single greatest revolts of the Roman Era. There are few sources about Bar-Kokhba. Those who supported him saw him as a messianic figure. , “ The Bar Kokhba Revolt: The Roman Point of View,” Journal of Roman Studies 89 (1999). The Jews were handed expectations of a homeland and a Holy Temple, but in the end were persecuted and sold into slavery. The turning point of the war came when Hadrian sent into Judea one of his best generals from Britain, Julius Severus, along with former governor of Germania, Hadrianus Quintus Lollius Urbicus. Due to the large number of Jewish rebels, instead of waging open war, Severus besieged Jewish fortresses and held back food until the Jews grew weak. A different kind of redemption was now at hand. (ed. In many ways, the Bar Kochba Revolt differed markedly from its predecessors. As if history were repeating itself, recovery and reinstatement of Jewish self-government ensued once again. Once again a Jewish attempt to defeat the Romans and to bring the messianic era had failed. In 132, a revolt led by Bar Kokhba quickly spread from Modi'in across the country, cutting off the Roman garrison in Jerusalem. With the fall of Jerusalem and then Bethar, a fortress on the seacoast south of Caesarea where Bar Kokhba was slain, the rebellion was crushed in 135. Within a short time it had spread throughout the country, and the rebels took Jerusalem, which had not been heavily fortified by the Romans. Keter Publishing House, Jerusalem. They built hideouts in caves and did shoddy work building weapons so that the Romans would reject the weapons and return them to the Jews. All the suffering and the fervent yearnings for redemption had culminated not in a messianic state, but in a collection of traditions which set forth the dreams and aspirations for the perfect holiness that state was to engender. Jerusalem was turned into a pagan city called Aelia Capitolina and the Jews were forbidden to live there. Hadrian hated “foreign” religions and forbade the Jews to perform circumcisions. The slogans on the Bar Kokhba coins proclaimed … Yet as victories go, Simon Bar Kochba's was a Pyrrhic one. The story of Bar-Kokhba was a legend in Jewish history - some actually believed he wasn't a real person. When Hadrian first became the Roman emperor in 118 C.E., he was sympathetic to the Jews. The other two were the Kitios War (115-117) and the First Jewish War (66-70 AD). Imagine the incredible excitement of those involved in the discovery of the caves when they learned they had finally uncovered the final resting place of Bar-Kokhba and others who were with him. What is especially significant in these disturbances is the evidence that they were fueled by the very same messianic yearnings that had helped to fan the flames of the Great Revolt, and would soon lead to the Bar Kochba Revolt. The marriage of politics and religion contributed to both the expansion and destruction of this short-lived dynasty. The Bar Kokhba Revolt is still commemorated by Jews around the world on the holiday of Lag Ba’Omer, which has been reinterpreted by Zionists from a more religious observance to a secular celebration of Jewish resilience. 70AD) and a second revolt, known as the Bar Kokhba revolt, happened several decades later. The last fortress to fall was Betar, not far to the southwest of Jerusalem, which was captured by the Romans during the summer of 136 C.E. The war began as a guerrilla struggle against Rome in 13… This age of persecution lasted throughout the remainder of Hadrian’s reign, until 138 C.E. This revolt was the culmination of political tensions between Jews and the Romans, owing to the large military presence in Judea, the failure of the first revolt, and possibly Emperor Hadrian’s establishment of a temple of Jupiter in the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. His state was conquered by the Romans in 135 following a two-year war. Copyright © 2002-2021 My Jewish Learning. Both are found subleasing land from Bar Kokhba, probably part of the imperial estate in Ein Gedi, now taken over by the rebels; see Yadin, Y., ‘ Expedition D ’, IEJ II (1961), 40 – 50, and Cotton, H. M., ‘Ein Gedi between the two revolts’, in Katzoff, R. How to say bar Kokhba revolt in English? 24:17 (“A star shall go forth from Jacob”), taken to refer to the messiah. The final battle of the war took place in Bethar, Bar-Kokhba’s headquarters, which housed both the Sanhedrin (Jewish High Court) and the home of the Nasi (leader). Hadrian quickly went back on his word, however, and requested that the site of the Temple be moved from its original location. For the first time, the Jews presented a united … “Bar Kokhba”. Messianism was abstracted and spiritualized, and rabbinical political thought becam… Military aspects of the revolt were led by Simon Bar Kosiba (Bar Kokhba), who is named “Simon, Prince of Israel” on some revolt coins. The caves helped Jews fight against the Romans during two revolts; one revolt occurred around the time the temple was destroyed in Jerusalem (approx. Thousands of Jewish refugees fled to Bethar during the war. -Bar Kokhba proclaiming open rebellion against Roman rule in Judea. Bethar was a vital military stronghold because of its strategic location on a mountain ridge overlooking both the Valley of Sorek and the important Jerusalem-Bet Guvrin Road. Hadrian, destroying an enemy Obverse: 'Shimon' (in Palaeo-Hebrew) around the tetrastyle facade of the Temple of… It followed a long period of tension and violence, marked by the first Jewish uprising of 66-70 CE, which ended with the destruction of … According to the second-century Roman historian Lucius Cassius Dio, the construction of the city, with a temple to the god Jupiter in the center, was itself the spark that ignited the rebellion: The Jewish extremists could not tolerate the fact that a pagan Roman city was being built on the ruins of Jerusalem. His state was conquered by the Romans in 135 following a two-year war. By that time, there were 12 army legions from Egypt, Britain, Syria and other areas in Judea. The Jews then satisfied themselves with preparing secretly in case a rebellion would later become necessary. Hardly anyone in the company of the Emperor could have guessed that a few years later a revolt would break out in this very province — a revolt which would cast a shadow over Hadrian's later years. Simon Bar Kosiba led the uprising, which began in full force in 132 CE. By the end of the war many Jews had been massacred, the land had been devastated again, and distinguished rabbis had been martyred. Bar Kokhba Revolt: The revolt of 132-135 A. D. began with promise, after years Rome finally exacted a blood vengeance by General Severus. History Until 1880: Israel Pocket Library. In the years following the revolt, Hadrian discriminated against all Judeo-Christian sects, but the worst persecution was directed against religious Jews. Documents discovered in the modern era Rabbi Akiva. This was led by Simeon Bar-Kokhba, (Son of a Star) a charismatic leader, who many regarded as the Messiah, foretold in the Book of Numbers in the Old Testament . All Rights Reserved. [citation needed] The disastrous end of the revolt also occasioned major changes in Jewish religious thought. Rufus was a harsh ruler who took advantage of Jewish women. They seized towns and fortified them with walls and subterranean passages. It was in this period that tannaitic Judaism came to its final stages, and that the work of gathering its intellectual heritage, the Mishnah, into a redacted collection began. Bar Kokhba Revolt coinage were coins issued by the Judaean rebel state, headed by Simon Bar Kokhba, during the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Roman Empire of 132-135 CE. Jews were hiding in caves in order to be able to perform the mitzvahs. Bar Kokhba Revolt Coin inscribed with the word "Jerusalem" and a picture of a date palm. On Lag Ba'Omer, Israeli children celebrate the Jewish rebels' victory over the Romans 2,000 years ago. Bar-Kokhba united his army in Judea and led the Jews in battle. 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