Shimon Bar-Kochva

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Shimon Ben Kusiba (Bar Kochva) /In Hebrew: שמעון בן כוסיבא (בר כוכבא). המרד הגדול

In the year 132 (Christian count), the great Jewish rebellion in Israel led by Bar Kochva started. That time the Roman empire led by lord Adrianus was in charge of hundreds of countries. It would take a miracle to defeat the powerful Roman empire.

[edit] The Beginning

For the Jews, living in the land of Israel that was owned by the Romans was not easy. It was after the second Holy Temple was destroyed. The Romans forbade the Jews to believe in their religion. The Romans, after they destroyed Jerusalem, started to rebuild the cities they destroyed except they turned them into Roman cities. Any Jew that believed in Judaism was killed.

The Jews had enough, and decided to start a rebellion, that was led by Bar Kochva. Rabbi Akiva admired Bar Kochva, and because of that, all of Rabbi Akiva's students joined the rebellion. Bar Kochva was extremely strong, and he knew exactly where to attack, Jerusalem.

The Romans would have never thought they would attack in such a place, and thats why the Jews won the battle. But the Romans didn't give up so easily. They brought an army of 60,000 men. The rebels, that were only a few hundred, knew they had no chance of winning, so they retreated to the tiny city of Beytar. The Romans attacked the rebellion, and won the battle.

Bar Kochva was taken to prison, but he still did not give up. The Romans put a lion in Bar Kochva's cage, so he can be tortured. But Bar Kochva was a very strong man: he jumped onto the lion and made it hit open the cage door, and Bar Kochva escaped.

The day the rebellion failed is a sad day for Jews. In this war all of Rabbi Akiva's students including Rabbi Akiva were killed, but the Jews still didn't give up.

Eventually the Jews got their freedom and defeated the Roman empire.