Shimʿon bar Yoḥʾai

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SHIMʿON BAR YOḤʾAI

SHIMʿON BAR YOḤʾAI (second century ce) was a Palestinian tanna, rabbinic leader, mystic, and ascetic. Shimʿon was one of the two most prominent students of ʿAqivaʾ ben Yosef (the other was Meʾir); he was the student who provoked the deposition of Gamliʾel from the position of nasiʾ of Israel (cf. B.T., Ber. 28a). Shimʿon was one of the five rabbis ordained by Yehudah ben Bavaʾ during the Hadrianic persecutions that followed the Bar Kokhba Revolt. After the Sanhedrin was reestablished in the Galilean city of Usha, Shimʿon taught in nearby Tiberias and Meron. According to several legends, he was responsible for locating many lost tombs and removing these sources of ritual uncleanness from Tiberias, thereby restoring its prominence in the region.

Shimʿon is the subject of many rabbinic legends. The best known of these recounts how he and his son hid in a cave after he was sentenced to death by the Romans; according to some versions, when he emerged from the cave after twelve years and saw people who were engaged in farming rather than in the study of Torah, he set their fields afire by only a glance in their direction (B.T., Shab. 33b). As a punishment Shimʿon and his son were sent back to the cave by God for another year. Shimʿon demonstrated magical powers in other stories as well: He filled a valley with gold coins (J.T., Ber. 9.2, 13d) and exorcised a demon from the daughter of the Roman emperor (B.T., Meʿil. 17b).

Shimʿon is one of the most frequently mentioned authorities in the Mishnah, where he is referred to without patronymic; his rulings cover most of the major topics taken up in rabbinic sources. One of the more famous sayings attributed to him declares that if the Jews properly observed two consecutive Sabbaths, they would be redeemed immediately (B.T., Shab. 118b). There is no systematic critical study of his traditions. Jacob Epstein believes that the corpus of his traditions was one of the primary documents used in the redaction of the Mishnah.

The Talmud considers Shimʿon to be the paradigm of the scholar who is totally immersed in the study of the Torah. A rabbi of his caliber was not required to interrupt his study even for the important daily recitation of the Shemaʿ (J.T., Ber. 1.2, 3b). Concerning the study of Torah, he said: "If I had been at Mount Sinai at the time the Torah was given to Israel, I would have asked God to endow man with two mouths, one to talk of the Torah and one to attend to his other needs.… But the world can barely withstand the slander of [persons with] one [mouth]. It would be all the worse if [each individual] had two" (J.T., Ber. 1.2, 3b). Shimʿon himself believed that he was the holiest person ever to have lived: If one individual were to merit entering heaven, he said, it would be Shimʿon (J.T., Ber. 9.2, 13d).

Shimʿon is assigned authorship of several Midrashic compilations: the Sifrei on Numbers and Deuteronomy (B.T., San. 86a) and the Mekhiltaʾ de-Rabbi Shimʿon bar Yohʾai, a midrash on the Book of Exodus. Several short apocalyptic mystical compilations are also linked with his name. Medieval mystics credited him with the authorship of the Zohar, one of the most important texts of the Qabbalah (an attribution still considered valid by many contemporary mystics despite evidence to the contrary).

The holiday of Lag ba-ʿOmer, on the eighteenth of Iyyar, is thought to be the anniversary of his death; it is celebrated at his traditional place of burial in Meron.

Bibliography

Jacob N. Epstein's Mavoʾ le-sifrut ha-tannaʾim (Jerusalem, 1957) discusses the place of Shimʿon's traditions in the development of the Mishnah. In Rabbi Shimʿon ben Yoḥʾai (in Hebrew; Jerusalem, 1966) Israel Konovitz collects all the references to Shimʿon in rabbinic literature.