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Essay on The Bar Kochba Revolt
The Bar Kokhba revolt marked a time of elevated hopes followed by brutal despair. The Jews were handed expectations of a homeland and a Holy Temple, but in the end were persecuted and sold into slavery. All through the revolt itself, the Jews gained massive amounts of land, only to be pushed back and trampled in the final battle of Bethar. When Hadrian first became the Roman emperor in 118 C.E., he was kind to the Jews. He permitted them to return to Jerusalem and granted permission for the rebuilding of their Holy Temple.( Solomon Grayzel (1961)) The Jews’ expectations rose as they made organizational and financial preparations to reconstruct the temple.
Hadrian swiftly went back on his word, however, and requested that the site of the Temple be moved from its original location. He also began deporting Jews to North Africa. The Jews prepared to rebel until Rabbi Joshua ben Hananiah calmed them. The Jews then satisfied themselves with preparing secretly in case a rebellion would later become necessary. They built hideouts in caves and did shoddy work building weapons so that the Romans would reject the weapons and return them to the Jews.
The Jews organized guerilla forces and, in 123 C.E., began launching surprise attacks against the Romans. From that point on, life only got worse for the Jews. Hadrian brought an extra army legion, the "Sixth Ferrata," into Judea to deal with the terrorism. Hadrian hated "foreign" religions and forbade the Jews to perform circumcisions. He appointed Tinneius Rufus governor of Judea. Rufus was a harsh ruler who took advantage of Jewish women. In approximately 132 C.E., Hadrian began to establish a city in Jerusalem called Aelia Capitolina, the name being a combination of his own name and that of the Roman god Jupiter Capitolinus......
