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Simon bar Kokhba (also commonly transliterated Kochba) was the last Jewish monarch, and led what is known as Bar Kokhba's Revolt against the Romans in 132 CE , establishing an independent 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. Originally named '''Simon Bar Koziba''', he was given the name Bar Kokhba ( Aramaic for "Son of a Star", referring to , "A star has shot off Jacob") by his contemporary, the Jewish sage Rabbi Akiva , who contemplated the possibility that Bar Kochba could be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah . (Some have considered ''Kozeba'', meaning "deceiver", to also be a rabbinic nickname for him. SECOND JEWISH REVOLT See Also: 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 established the last Jewish Monarchy in Judea , which lasted for three years. The war began very poorly for the Romans who faced a completely unified Jewish force. The annihilation of a complete Roman Legion with Auxiliaries resulted in the Romans committing no less than twelve legions, amounting to one third to one half of the entire Roman army, to retake the rebellious province. Being outnumbered and taking heavy casualties, the Romans refused to engage their army 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. After Bar Kokhba's defeat, Jerusalem was razed, Jews were forbidden to live there, and a new Roman city, , named for the Philistines , in order to humiliate the Jewish population by naming it after their ancient enemies. The name persists to this day as '' Palestine ''. 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 . 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 Pogrom s 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. 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. |
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