Simon bar Kokhba (Hebrew: שמעון בר כוכבא, also transliterated as Bar Kokhva or Bar Kochba) was the Jewish leader who led what is known as Bar Kokhba's revolt against the Roman Empire in 132 CE, establishing an independent Jewish state of Israel which he ruled for three years as Nasi ("prince," or "president"). His state was conquered by the Romans in 135 CE following a two-year war. “Hebrew” redirects here. ... Combatants Roman Empire Jews of Iudaea Commanders Hadrian Simon Bar Kokhba Strength  ?  ? Casualties Unknown 580,000 Jews (mass civilian casualties), 50 fortified towns and 985 villages razed (per Cassius Dio). ... Motto Senatus Populusque Romanus (SPQR) The Roman Empire at its greatest extent, c. ... Events The messianic, charismatic leader Simon bar Kokhba starts a war of liberation against the Romans, which is crushed by emperor Hadrian. ... Era Vulgaris redirects here. ... Nāśī’ (נָשִׂיא) is a Hebrew term meaning, roughly, Prince. In classical times it was the title given to the head of the Sanhedrin, the supreme court and legislative body of ancient Israel. ... For other uses, see number 135. ...

Originally named Simon ben Kosba (Hebrew: שמעון בן כוסבא or ben Kosiba, בן כוזיבא), he was given the surname Bar Kokhba (Aramaic for "Son of a Star", referring to Numbers 24:17, "A star has shot off Jacob") by his contemporary, the Jewish sage Rabbi Akiva. “Hebrew” redirects here. ... Aramaic is a group of Semitic languages with a 3,000-year history. ... Akiba ben Joseph (or Rabbi Akiva, Rebbi Akiva, c. ...

After the failure of the revolt, many, including rabbinical writers, referred to Simon bar Kokhba as "Simon bar Kozeba" ("Son of the lie"). Rabbi, in Judaism, means ‘teacher’, or more literally ‘great one’. The word Rabbi is derived from the Hebrew root word , rav, which in biblical Hebrew means ‘great’ or ‘distinguished (in knowledge)’. Sephardic and Yemenite Jews pronounce this word ribbī; the modern Israeli pronunciation rabbī is derived from a recent (18th...

Second Jewish revolt

Main article: Bar Kokhba's revolt

Despite the devastation wrought by the Romans during the First Jewish-Roman War (66–73 CE), which left the population and countryside in ruins, another Jewish rebellion took place 60 years later that re-established an independent state lasting three years. The state minted its own coins, which were inscribed "the first (or second) year of the redemption of Israel". Bar Kokhba ruled with the title of "Nasi". The Romans fared very poorly during the initial revolt facing a completely unified Jewish force (unlike during the First Jewish-Roman War, where Flavius Josephus records three separate Jewish armies fighting each other for control of the Temple Mount during the three weeks time after the Romans had breached Jerusalem's walls and were fighting their way to the center). A complete Roman legion with auxiliaries was annihilated. The new state knew only one year of peace. The Romans committed no less than twelve legions, amounting to one third to one half of the entire Roman army, to reconquer this now independent state. Being outnumbered and taking heavy casualties, the Romans refused to engage in an open battle and instead adopted a scorched earth policy which decimated the Judean populace, slowly grinding away at the will of the Judeans to sustain the war. Bar Kokhba took up refuge in the fortress of Betar. The Romans eventually captured it and killed all the defenders. According to Cassius Dio, 580,000 Jews were killed, 50 fortified towns and 985 villages razed. Jerusalem also was razed, a short-lived attempt was made to prevent Jews from living in the area, and a new Roman city, Aelia Capitolina, was built in its place. Yet so costly was the Roman victory that the Emperor Hadrian, when reporting to the Roman Senate, did not see fit to begin with the customary greeting "I and my army are well", and is the only Roman general known to have refused to celebrate his victory with a triumnphal entrance into his capital. Combatants Roman Empire Jews of Iudaea Commanders Hadrian Simon Bar Kokhba Strength  ?  ? Casualties Unknown 580,000 Jews (mass civilian casualties), 50 fortified towns and 985 villages razed (per Cassius Dio). ... Combatants Roman Empire Jews of Iudaea Province Commanders Vespasian, Titus Simon Bar-Giora, Yohanan mi-Gush Halav (John of Gischala), Eleazar ben Simon Strength 70,000? 1,100,000? Casualties Unknown 1,100,000? (majority Jewish civilian casualties) The first Jewish-Roman War (years 66–73 CE), sometimes called The... This article is about the year 66. ... This article is about the year 73. ... Josephus, also known as Flavius Josephus (c. ... The Temple Mount as it appears today. ... The Roman Legion (from Latin , from lego, legere, legi, lectus — to collect) is a term that can apply both as a transliteration of legio (conscription or army) to the entire Roman army and also, more narrowly (and more commonly), to the heavy infantry that was the basic military unit of... The term auxiliaries comes from the latin auxilia (help). ... A scorched earth policy is a military tactic which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area. ... Betar was the last standing Jewish fortress in the Bar Kochba revolt of the 2nd century AD, destroyed by the Roman army on Tisha Bav. ... Cassius Dio Cocceianus (ca. ... Aelia Capitolina was a city built by the emperor Hadrian in the year 131, and occupied by a Roman colony, on the site of Syrian dominions. ... Publius Aelius Traianus Hadrianus (January 24, 76 – July 10, 138), known as Hadrian in English was Roman emperor from 117 – 138, as well as a Stoic and Epicurean philosopher. ... The Roman Senate (Latin: Senatus) was the main governing council of both the Roman Republic, which started in 509 BC, and the Roman Empire. ...

In the aftermath of the war, Hadrian consolidated the older political units of Judaea, Galilee and Samaria into the new province of Syria Palaestina (Palestine). The new provincial designation, derived from the ancient sea-faring Philistine people who anciently occupied the coastal plain, had long been current as a geographical term, but had possessed little if any political connotation. It has since become a standard designation in European languages as well as Arabic. (A common modern designation, "Land of Israel", did not become widely popular among Jews until Talmudic times, but is attested much earlier, e.g. in the twentieth and twenty-first verses of the third chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the Christian New Testament.) The Holy Land or Palestine Showing not only the Old Kingdoms of Judea and Israel but also the 12 Tribes Distinctly, and Confirming Even the Diversity of the Locations of their Ancient Positions and Doing So as the Holy Scriptures Indicate, a geographic map from the studio of Tobiae Conradi...

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch in his commentary on Deuteronomy 8:10 states that the mandatory fourth blessing of the Birkat HaMazon was instituted after Bar Kokhba's revolt to remind the Jews to not try to take possession of the land of Israel without God's involvement — presumably the Messiah. This background gives understanding to Rabbi Hirsch's and other Orthodox leaders' pre-WWII anti-Zionist stance (and that of some Orthodox groups today). Rabbi S.R. Hirsch Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (June 20, 1808 - December 31, 1888) was the intellectual founder of the Torah im Derech Eretz school of contemporary Orthodox Judaism. ... Birkat Hamazon (ברכת המזון), known in English as the Grace After Meals (lit. ...

Over the past few decades, much new information about the revolt has come to light, thanks mainly to the discovery of several collections of letters, some possibly by Bar Kokhba himself, in the caves overlooking the Dead Sea. These letters can now be seen at the Israel Museum. The Dead Sea (Hebrew: ), (Arabic: ), is the Earths lowest point not covered by water or ice, at 418 m (1,371 feet) below sea level and falling,[2] and the deepest hypersaline lake in the world, at 330 m (1,083 feet) deep. ... The road sign The Shrine of the Book The Israel Museum in Jerusalem, was founded in 1965 as Israels national museum. ...

Bar Kokhba in the arts

Bar Kokhba was the subject of an operetta, Bar Kokhba, written by Abraham Goldfaden some time between 1883 and 1885. It was written in the wake of the pogroms following the 1881 assassination of Czar Alexander II of Russia as the tide turned against Jewish emancipation. Another operetta on the subject of Bar Kokhba was written by the Russian-Jewish emigre composer Yaacov Bilansky Levanon in Palestine in the 1920s. Operetta (literally, little opera) is a performance art-form similar to opera, though it generally deals with less serious topics. ... Abraham Goldfaden Abraham Goldfaden (July 24, 1840 – January 9, 1908), born Abraham Goldenfoden (first name alternately Avram, Avron, Avrohom, Avrom, or Avrum, last name alternately Goldfadn; the Romanian spelling Avram Goldfaden is common) was a Russian-born Jewish poet and playwright, author of some 40 plays. ... Pogrom (from Russian: ; from громить IPA: - to wreak havoc, to demolish violently) is a form of riot directed against a particular group, whether ethnic, religious or other, and characterized by destruction of their homes, businesses and religious centers. ... Alexander (Aleksandr) II Nikolaevich (Russian: Александр II Николаевич) (born 17 April 1818 in Moscow; died 13 March 1881 in St. ... Composer Yaacov Bilansky Levanon (b. ...

John Zorn's Masada Chamber Ensemble recorded an album called Bar Kokhba, showing a photograph of the Letter of Bar Kokhba to Yeshua, son of Galgola on the cover. John Zorn (born September 2, 1953 in Queens, USA) is a Jewish American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. ... Bar Kokhba is a double album by John Zorn, recorded between 1994 and 1996. ...

The Bar Kokhba game

According to a legend, during his reign, Bar Kokhba was once presented a mutilated man, who had his tongue ripped out and hands cut off. As he was unable to talk or write, he wasn't able to tell who his attackers were, so Bar Kokhba decided to ask simple questions to which the dying man was able to nod or shake his head with his last movements, thus they were able to apprehend the murderers.

In Hungary, this legend spawned the "Bar Kokhba game", in which one of the two players comes up with a word or object, and the other one has to find out by asking questions only to be answered with "yes" or "no". The verb "kibarkochbázni" ("to Bar Kochba out") became a common language verb meaning "retrieving information in an extremely tedious way".^[1]

In English speaking countries, this is known as Twenty Questions. Twenty Questions is a popular spoken parlour game for two or more players. ...

References

Bibliography

• W. Eck, 'The Bar Kokhba Revolt: the Roman point of view' in the Journal of Roman Studies 89 (1999) 76ff.

• David Goodblatt, Avital Pinnick and Daniel Schwartz: Historical Perspectives: From the Hasmoneans to the Bar Kohkba Revolt In Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Boston: Brill: 2001: ISBN 90-04-12007-6

• Richard Marks: The Image of Bar Kokhba in Traditional Jewish Literature: False Messiah and National Hero: University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press: 1994: ISBN 0-271-00939-X

• Leibel Reznick: The Mystery of Bar Kokhba: Northvale: J.Aronson: 1996: ISBN 1-56821-502-9

• Peter Schafer: The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered: Tubingen: Mohr: 2003: ISBN 3-16-148076-7

• David Ussishkin: "Archaeological Soundings at Betar, Bar-Kochba's Last Stronghold", in: Tel Aviv. Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University 20 (1993) 66ff.

• Yigael Yadin: Bar Kokhba: The Rediscovery of the Legendary Hero of the Last Jewish Revolt Against Imperial Rome: London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson: 1971: ISBN 0-297-00345-3

Yigael Yadin (March 20, 1917 - June 28, 1984) was an Israeli archeologist, politician, and the second Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). ...

External links

• The Bar-Kokhba Revolt (132-135 C.E.) by Shira Schoenberg (Jewish Virtual Library)
• Bar Kochba with links to all sources (livius.org)