Bar-Kokheba

Simon (or Siméon) Bar Kokhba (or Bar-Kokheba, or Bar-Cocheba) was a patriot Juif, and the leader of their last revolt against the Roman empire.
Outré by the decision of the emperor Hadrian to make build a temple dedicated to Jupiter on the site of the Temple of Jerusalem (destroyed in 70 by Titus), it carried out an ultimate rising against the Romans, in 132 EC., and managed to restore independence of what was the Provincia Iudaea . It directed it like Nassi (prince or president), until its fall in 135 EC., after two years of keen war.

History of a name

Born Siméon bar Kezibha, he was recognized like Messie by largest Sage of his time, Rabbi Akiva. This one, referring to the verse “ a star is killed Jacob ”, gave him the name of Bar Kokhba (" Wire of Étoile" in Araméen).
Le larger Wise Jew of its time carried to him a support without fault (Yer. Taanit 4,5).
Cependant, when Bar Kokhba showed treason Rabbi Eléazar (his/her uncle, according to certain sources) and made it carry out, Rabbi Akiva ceased defending it and admitted his error publicly.

Contrary to a spread idea, including in the rabbinical Literature, Bar Kezibha, which can result in " Wire of Mensonge" , is not a nickname given by former disillusioned partisans, but an indication of its town of origin, Kezibh , mentioned in two places in the Hebraic Bible, in like belonging to the territory of Juda, and in like place of residence of Juda itself, when his wife, the girl of Shou' has, is confined of her last child, Chela.

Note: Peretz, from which the king David goes down, and Zera' H are the wire of Tamar

However, Hizkiya, the father of Siméon, is itself of davidic ascent, and was born with Kezibh, city when the founder of the royal tribe remained. That contributed to the eyes of many its contemporaries of which Rabbi Akiva, to accredit it as a Messie (Midrash Eikha Raba II).

The revolt of Bar Kokhba

See the Revolt of Bar Kokhba

In spite of devastation and ruin in which the Romans had plunged the country during the First war judéo-Roman, another Jewish rebellion took place later 60 years, in spite of the opposition of part of the clergy, and restores the independence of the Judaea for three years.

The Romans, facing a strongly unified and justified Jewish force, were completely taken with deprived. The annihilation of a whole Légion Roman with its Auxiliaires obliged Rome to dispatch not less than twelve legions, which represented between the third and half of all the Roman army, to reconquer the rebellious province.

Handicapped by the number and undergoing heavy losses, the Romans decided to practice a tactic of burned ground, which decimated the population judéenne and gradually started their moral and their determination to continue the war. Bar Kokhba was folded up in the fortress of Betar, in the south-west of Jerusalem, but the Romans ended up taking it, and massacred all its defenders in 135 EC. Following the defeat of Bar Kokhba, Jerusalem was shaven, prohibited with the Jews, and a new Roman city, Ælia Capitolina, was built on its site.

If they inflicted in Judaea a bitter defeat, the victory of the Romans did not have however a taste of triumph: Hadrian, when he addressed himself to the Sénat, did not begin with traditional “the Me and my army we carry well”, and refused the triumphal entry in Rome, the only case brought back in the history of Rome. Become Emperor, Hadrian re-elected Provincia Iudaea Syria Palaestina , according to the Philistins, in order to humiliate the Jewish population and to erase a side of their history by réattribuant with the Ground of Judaea the name of his enemies missing at the time glorious of the King David. This name persists nowadays since the political and national entity concurrent of Israel names Palestine .

In 1960, part of the correspondence of Bar Kokhba was found in the cave of Nahel Hever close to the Dead Sea, which made it possible to make the light on its revolt. These letters are exposed to the Musée of Israel.

Bar Kokhba in arts

Bar Kokhba was the hero éponyme of a Opérette of Abraham Goldfaden, made up between 1883 and 1885, at the time of the rise of the Pogrom S following the assassination of the Tsar Alexandre II in 1881, whereas a frankly hostile tendency to the emancipation of the Jews went up.

Another operetta on Bar Kokhba was written in British Palestine in the years 1920 by the emigrated Russian type-setter Yaacov Bilansky Levanon.

An album called Bar Kokhba was recorded by the John Zorn 'S Masada Chamber Together. Its small pocket shows a photograph of the Letter of Bar Kokhba in Yeshua wire of Galgola.

Sources

Comment of Genesis 38: 5, in the Voice of the Torah, Elie Munk, Samuel Foundation and Odette Levy, edition February 1998.

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