The Bar Kochba Revolt Tiyul

By Hannah Eggleston,    11^th grade,     Virginia

The Bar Kochba Revolt of the Second Century differed from the Great Revolt of the year 70 CE in many ways.  For one, during the Great Revolt there was little unity.  Not everyone was behind the idea and not everyone wanted to revolt.  During the Bar Kochba Revolt, however, people were unified behind an idea and supported a revolt.  An example of this is the coins that were minted during this period, which was a form of rebellion demonstrating that the Jews didn’t agree with the current rule.  Another reason these two revolts differ is the army and strategy.  The Great Revolt wasn’t really an army; it was just the zealots fighting the Romans.  They also lacked real strategy.  The Bar Kochba Revolt, however, was more unified as a fighting force and used a specific strategy to accomplish their goals.   Finally, the Great Revolt lacked real leadership.  The Bar Kochba Revolt had a leader, and the entire revolt was named after him.  He was a false-messiah, and for a long time rabbis refused to acknowledge him – when they did, they renamed him Bar Koziba, or “Son of Disappointment”.  Bar Kochba lead the revolt against the Romans from 132-135 when the Jews were unable to suppress their nationalism.

Roman Amphitheater in Beit Guvrin National Park

During the Bar Kochba revolt, the Jews were heavily reliant on underground caves and tunnels.  These tunnels and caves were extensive, and were a great place for the Jewish people to wait out their attackers.  They could stay in these tunnels for long periods of time, popping out and surprise attacking the Romans with guerrilla tactics.  It was essentially a giant game of whack-a-mole – the Jews would appear and attack the Romans and then retreat to their caves.  It was difficult for the Romans to follow Bar Kochba and his followers because their bulky armor made it difficult for them to fit through the tunnels and forced them to follow each other single file.  Because of this and their tactics, the Jews were able to hold out against the Romans for three years.

            I personally think that the Bar Kochba Revolt was justified.  The Jews couldn’t get rid of their sense of nationalism, and felt that the only way to fight for it was to start a rebellion.  Even the rabbis agreed that revolting was the only way to go.  The Romans were oppressing the Jews and their beliefs, and the Jews were not okay with that.  They collectively agreed that revolting was the best option in terms of getting the Romans to understand their unhappiness.  Had I been in that situation, I would’ve joined the revolt as well.  It’s unknown whether or not the Bar Kochba Revolt lead to the Hadrianic decrees or whether the decrees led to the revolt, but either way, having your religion and culture taken away from you is incredibly upsetting, enough so to start a revolt.

            There are many ways to see the Bar Kochba Revolt from the point of view of the Romans.  For one, you can look at different Roman sources.  There are more Roman sources relating to the Bar Kochba Revolt than sources of any other origin, such as Jewish, early Christian, and archaeological.  The Romans were so perturbed by the behavior of the Jews in Israel because they didn’t understand their customs and didn’t understand how the Jews could be monotheistic and believe in only one god.  Romans, at this time, were still polytheistic and used their gods and goddesses to explain everything, including every day happenings.

            Rabbi Akiva is known as “our greatest sage”.  He divided all of the Talmudic study materials into six parts, or the “Six Orders of Mishna”.  He lived through the destruction of the Second Temple and studied for 24 years with 24,000 students, or so the midrash says.  Because of his devotion to Torah and how learning Torah affected both his personal and spiritual life, he refused to stop teaching Torah.  The Roman emperor Hadrian banned the study of Torah.  Rabbi Akiva was one of the ten martyred rabbis.  He was executed at Caesaria and was willing to die for Torah.  His last recorded words were those of the Sh’ma prayer, holding out the final “echad”.  These events are highly inspirational.  Although the study of Torah was forbidden, Rabbi Akiva was not willing to give up doing something that he completely believed in, even though he knew it would probably end with his death.  The Romans tried to tell him to stop, but they couldn’t take away how he felt no matter how much they tried.