Yigael Yadin, the prominent
Israeli archeologist and statesman, made an extraordinary discovery in the
Judean desert, near Ein Gedi, in 1961. Yadin and his excavation team found in a
canyon crevice letters signed by Simon Bar Kosiba.. In the letters, Bar Kosiba
describes himself as the leader of an independent Jewish state that rebelled
against the might of the Roman Empire for three years, flourishing from 132 to
135 CE. Yadin’s discovery shed light on the history of the rebellion led by Bar
Kosiba, providing missing pieces of information on the insurrection led by the
man who is better known today as “Bar Kokhba.” On the holiday of Lag Ba’Omer,
Jews in Israel build bonfires and conduct student field days to celebrate the
three-year revolt against Rome and the exploits of Bar Kokhba. Bar Kokhba is
especially important in Israel today because he was the last leader of a
sovereign Jewish State in Israel before the rise of Zionism in the modern
epoch.
We
know little of the origins of the rebellion led by Simon Bar Kosiba. This is a
great loss for historians today—there was no chronicler of the caliber of
Josephus to record the second great ancient rebellion against Rome. We know
much of the Great Revolt in 66-70 because the Jewish historian wrote his
eyewitness account of the events in The Jewish War. Alas, Josephus was
already dead at the time of the second revolt led by Bar Kosiba. Ancient Roman
historian Dio Cassius, one of the few sources we have on the second rebellion,
states that the Jewish uprising against Rome was ignited by the provocative
plan of Hadrian, the Roman emperor, to raise a temple to Jupiter in Jerusalem
on the Temple Mount and convert the former Jewish capital into a Roman colony.
According to other ancient sources, Hadrian’s plan to outlaw circumcision—in a
general ban on any form of self-mutilation, as perceived by the emperor—was the
cause for the revolt. The Jewish forces held out against the might of the Roman
Empire for three years. The revolt was no minor skirmish—Hadrian summoned
legions from Britain to crush the rebellion. Archeologists have discovered
coins minted during the rebellion that indicate Jewish control of the holy city
of Jerusalem during the years of war. The letters founded by Yadin more than 50
years ago reinforce the image of Bar Kokhba as an able military leader who
demanded utmost obedience from his troops. But one letter, in particular, is
fascinating in providing an insight into Bar Kokhba’s life as a religious Jew.
Bar
Kokhba writes to one “Yehudah bar Menashe.” The military leader has sent two
donkeys to Yehonatan bar Be’ayan and to Masabala in order that they shall pack
and send to the camp “palm branches and citrons.” Bar Kokhba wants Yehudah to
send others who will “bring you myrtles and willows.” His final words are an
order to see that “they are tithed and send them to the camp…Be well.” Bar
Kokhba is celebrating the waiving of the four species as part of the Sukkot
holiday! The military leader is not just a military leader but a Jew of great
faith. He takes time out from important strategic and political planning to
celebrate the Jewish pilgrimage festival in his fortress at Beitar. Bar Kokhba
is not a forerunner of Moshe Dayan and Ariel Sharon—although he does share his
heroism with them. Bar Kokhba is, in fact, much more of a Religious Zionist, if
one can actually call him a “Zionist.” Zionism is a modern movement—but its
roots in Jewish history and in the Hebrew Bible is deep. Bar Kokhba is a
harbinger of the modern phenomenon of Religious Zionism, especially as
expressed by the genius of the movement, Abraham Isaac Kook.
This
aspect of Bar Kohba’s career has been ignored by Zionists. One example is great
Zionist founder Max Nordau’s letter of June 1903 to the Bar Kokhba Gymnastic
Club in Berlin. Nordau applauded the young Jews in the club for their athletic
prowess—they were not the meek Jews in “the dimness of sunless houses” who
pored over Talmudic tractate from morning to night. These young men were “going
back to a glorious past” in which “Bar Kokhba was a hero who refused to know
defeat.” Nordau coined the term “Muskeljuden”—literally “muscle-Jews”—in
praising the emphasis of their physical strength and their pride in defending
themselves. No doubt, Nordau was right—but not totally accurate. Bar Kokhba did
not just stand for a military prowess that was a forerunner of Political
Zionism. Bar Kokhba was a Jew who performed Jewish rituals, prayed to the God
of Israel, and fought to stop the Roman desecration of holiness.
On
Lag Ba’Omer we celebrate Bar Kokhba—the military and political leader. But the
man was much more than just the forerunner of the Israeli military heroes of
today. He is the epitome of the Jew who could not imagine Judaism without the
Torah of Israel, the Land of Israel, and the people of Israel.
