What’s the big deal about Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (Rashbi)?

 

Everyone enjoys stories about the supernatural, especially if they have a happy ending. A number of such stories are told about Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in the Talmud and midrashim. In fact, almost the same stories can be found in different sources with different supernatural happenings. No matter. The very fact that such tales exist tells us that Rashbi was a particularly pious individual, was completely immersed in Torah, and that he existed on a higher spiritual plane than most other human beings.

 

Rashbi was one of the select students of Rabbi Akiva, and he studied with him for 13 years in Bnei Brak. He and a fellow student Rabbi Meir were the only ones who received ordination from their teacher. During the Bar Kochba Revolt, he left Israel for Sidon, but returned to Palestine, as it was then called, after this. During the Hadrianic persecutions following the revolt, the few remaining rabbis in the country maintained a small, almost underground, Sanhedrin to provide religious guidance to the people and to keep the rabbinic ordination program functioning. Many of the rabbinic discussions from this time and somewhat later were incorporated into the Mishna, and Rashbi is the fourth most frequently quoted sage in this book. He transmitted the traditions of his teacher Rabbi Akiva and also voiced his own ideas.

 

At some stage he ran afoul of the Roman authorities who placed a death sentence on him and he was forced to go into hiding. The reason recorded in the Talmud is because of disparaging remarks he made about Rome, but his offense could have been more consequential than this. He and his son Rabbi Eleazar ben Shimon hid initially in a study hall and received food and clothing from Rashbi's wife. However, they realized that this was too risky for her and they went into hiding in a cave close to Meron. One tradition is that their hiding place was in Peki’in, although there is no textual basis for this.

 

Several beautiful stories are told in the Talmud about this 13-year period, including how father and son subsisted miraculously on a date and carob tree, and how after many years they realized that the time was appropriate for them to leave their hideout. Following their exit from the cave, Rashbi settled either in Meron or in Tekoa in the Galilee. He was buried in Meron.

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There is a Jewish tradition that the Zohar was composed by Rashbi. The Zohar is a commentary on the Torah and is the foundational text of Jewish mysticism. This 1,000-page text was discovered in Spain in the 13th century, when Moses de Leon claimed to have found a manuscript called Midrash de-Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai. However, modern literary analysis by Gershom Scholem suggested that it was composed in the medieval period, in that its Aramaic is in a different style than that spoken at the time of Rashbi. De Leon’s wife also admitted that her husband composed it. Nevertheless, kabbalists would strongly disagree with this type of speculation.

 

Because of the blossoming of the study and practice of kabbalah in 16th century Safed, the tomb of Rashbi became a place of pilgrimage, particularly on the anniversary of his death (yahrzeit) on Lag Be’omer.  

 

On a firmer basis, there are important halachic works attributed to Rashbi, namely the Sifre, which consists of halachic midrashim to the biblical books of Numbers and Deuteronomy, and the Mekhilta de-Rabbi Shimon on the book of Exodus. The Sifre is one of a number of important commentaries that were based on the traditions of Rabbi Akiva and that were published by his students. Numerous aggadic statements made by Rashbi are recorded in the Talmud that emphasize in particular the primacy of Torah study. A strong mystic trend is also apparent in his sayings, which is another reason his name became associated with kabbalah.

 

An important halachic activity he performed was the purification of the city of Tiberias. This city was built by Herod Antipas. However, Jews were reluctant to settle in it because it was built on top of Jewish tombs. Rashbi identified these by growing lupins on suspected locations. Where there were tombs, the lupins did not take root and this allowed him to remove the bodies and bury them elsewhere. Jews were now able to live in Tiberias and it would become the major center for Jewish life in the country.