The Maccabees and Bar Kochba

A revolutionary coin like that of Bar Koziba one does not exchange

(6) The mishna discusses the five major communal fast days. Five calamitous matters occurred to our forefathers on the seventeenth of Tammuz, and five other disasters happened on the Ninth of Av. On the seventeenth of Tammuz the tablets were broken by Moses when he saw that the Jews had made the golden calf; the daily offering was nullified by the Roman authorities and was never sacrificed again; the city walls of Jerusalem were breached; the general Apostemos publicly burned a Torah scroll; and Manasseh placed an idol in the Sanctuary. On the Ninth of Av it was decreed upon our ancestors that they would all die in the wilderness and not enter Eretz Yisrael; and the Temple was destroyed the first time, in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, and the second time, by the Romans; and Beitar was captured; and the city of Jerusalem was plowed, as a sign that it would never be rebuilt. Not only does one fast on the Ninth of Av, but from when the month of Av begins, one decreases acts of rejoicing.

(14) In the war [pulemus] of Vespasian the Sages decreed upon the crowns of bridegrooms, i.e., that bridegrooms may no longer wear crowns, and upon the drums, meaning they also banned the playing of drums. In the war of Titus they also decreed upon the crowns of brides, and they decreed that a person should not teach his son Greek. In the last war, meaning the bar Kokheva revolt, they decreed that a bride may not go out in a palanquin inside the city, but our Sages permitted a bride to go out in a palanquin inside the city, as this helps the bride maintain her modesty.

(17) What I see for them is not yet,What I behold will not be soon:A star rises from Jacob,A scepter comes forth from Israel;It smashes the brow of Moab,The foundation of all children of Seth.

Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Rabbi [Yehuda HaNasi] would expound: “A star will arise from Jacob” (Numbers 24:17), do not read it as star [kokhav], but rather as fraudulent [kozav]. Rabbi Akiva, when he would look at that bar Koziva he would say: ‘This is the messianic king.’ Rabbi Yoḥanan ben Torata said to him: ‘Akiva, grass will grow in your cheeks and he still will not have come.’ Rabbi Yoḥanan said: “The voice is the voice of Jacob [and the hands are the hands of Esau]” (Genesis 27:22), “the voice”—the emperor Hadrian killed eight hundred million people in Beitar. Eighty thousand sounders of horns were laying siege to Beitar. Bar Koziva was there, and he had two hundred thousand men with severed fingers. The Sages sent to him: ‘Until when will you cause Israel to be blemished?’ He said to them: ‘How then can they be tested?’ They said to him: ‘Anyone who does not uproot a Lebanese cedar, let him not be written on your military roster.’ He had two hundred thousand of these and two hundred thousand of those. When they would go out to war they would say [to God] ‘Do not help and do not hinder.’ That is what is written: “Is it not You, God, who had abandoned us, You, God, who would not go out with our armies?” (Psalms 60:12). What would ben Koziva do? He would catch a catapult stone on one of his knees and propel it and kill several of their people. It was due to this that Rabbi Akiva said that.

With regard to the origins of the four blessings of Grace after Meals, Rav Naḥman said: Moses instituted for Israel the first blessing of: Who feeds all, when the manna descended for them and they needed to thank God.Joshua instituted the blessing of the land when they entered Eretz Yisrael.David and Solomon instituted the third blessing: Who builds Jerusalem, in the following manner: David instituted “…on Israel Your people and on Jerusalem Your city…” as he conquered the city, and Solomon instituted “…on the great and Holy Temple…” as he was the one who built the Temple. They instituted the blessing: Who is good and does good, at Yavne in reference to the slain Jews of the city of Beitar at the culmination of the bar Kokheva rebellion. They were ultimately brought to burial after a period during which Hadrian refused to permit their burial. As Rav Mattana said: On the same day that the slain of Beitar were brought to burial, they instituted the blessing: Who is good and does good, at Yavne. Who is good, thanking God that the corpses did not decompose while awaiting burial, and does good, thanking God that they were ultimately brought to burial.

The Gemara relates: Bar Koziva, i.e., bar Kokheva, ruled for two and a half years. He said to the Sages: I am the Messiah. They said to him: With regard to the Messiah it is written that he is able to smell and judge, so let us see ourselves whether he, bar Kokheva, is able to smell and judge. Once they saw that he was not able to smell and judge, the gentiles killed him.

Rabbi Akiva, one of the greater Sages of the Mishnah, was one of the supporters of King Bar Kozibah and would describe him as the Messianic king. He and all the Sages of his generation considered him to be the Messianic king until he was killed because of sins. Once he was killed, they realized that he was not the Mashiach.