Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai: An Inspiration Well Past His Passing

Avi Becker (’24) and water daily. When the search was intensified, they decided to seek a better hiding place. Without telling anyone of their whereabouts, they hid in a cave. G-d caused a carob tree to spring up at the entrance to the cave, as well as a spring of fresh water. For twelve years, Rabbi twelve months, and left it again, only after they heard the same heavenly voice calling them to leave.

This week we celebrated Lag Baomer which partly commemorates the Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. When Rabbi Shimon was a young boy, he studied in the great academy of the scholars of Yavneh which was founded by Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, who died just about the time that Shimon was born. Shimon’s principal teacher was the famous Rabbi Akiva, who had his academy in Bnei Berak.

During the persecution by the Roman Emperor Hadrian, when academies were shut down and learning was punishable by death, Rabbi Akiva continued to teach the Gemara publicly, and his Shimon stayed at his side until Rabbi Akiva was arrested. However, even then, Shimon continued to visit his master in prison to receive instruction there. Only death finally separated them, for Rabbi Akiva was condemned to die a martyr’s death for Kiddush Hashem (the sanctification of G-d’s name).

This time, they came out with a different outlook on life. Seeing a Jew carrying two bunches of myrtle, rushing home on Friday afternoon, they asked him what he was going to do with the myrtle.

“It is to adorn my house in honor of the Shabbat,” the man replied. “Would not one bunch of myrtle be sufficient to fill your house with fragrance?” they asked. The stranger replied, “I am taking two bunches, one for ‘Remember the Shabbat day and the other for ‘Keep the Shabbat Day holy.’” Said Rabbi Shimon to his son, “See how precious the precepts are to our brethren!”

Satisfied that despite all the decrees and persecutions of the cruel Roman rulers, the Jews still clung to the commandments and especially Shabbat observance, Rabbi Shimon and his son felt greatly encouraged.

Last Week’s Solution

Finally, Hadrian died, and his decrees were no longer enforced with the same brutality as before. The leading sages of that time gathered to consider ways and means of restoring Jewish religious life. The leading sages were Rabbi Yehudah, Rabbi Yosei HaGlili, and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. At this meeting Rabbi Shimon preached defiance against the Roman rule in vengeance of his teacher’s brutal death. This caused much aggression towards him and he was forced to flee.

Rabbi Shimon fled for his life together with his son Rabbi Elazar. For some time they stayed in hiding in the Bet Hamedrash , where Rabbi Shimon’s wife brought them bread

Shimon bar Yochai and his son Elazar dwelt in the cave, sustaining themselves on carobs and water. During this time, they studied and prayed until they became the holiest sages of their day.

At the end of twelve years, Eliyahu came and told them of a radical change in the government that once seemed to capture them. They left the cave passing a field where they saw Jewish farmers toiling on the land and they said, “Imagine people giving up the sacred study of the Torah for worldly matters!”

No sooner did they utter these words, then all the produce of the field went up in smoke. Then they heard a heavenly voice saying, “Have you come out to destroy My world? Go back to your cave!” They returned to the cave for another

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai is the author of the sacred Zohar (“Brilliance”), containing mystic interpretations of the Torah, and the chief source of the Kabbalah. For many generations, the teachings of the holy Zohar were studied by a few select scholars, until the great scholar Rabbi Moses ben Shem Tov de Leon published the Zohar about seven hundred years ago. Rabbi Shimon is also the author of Sifri and “Mechilta of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.”

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai died in Meron, a village near Safed, in the Land of Israel. There, often times, on Lag BaOmer people visit his grave, not in mourning of the life that was lost, but rather in exuberance of the life that was.