Rabbi Elazar beRabbi Shimon רבי אלעזר ברבי שמעון

Son of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, he fled Rome with his father into the cave as a boy: thirteen years the two sat buried to the neck in sand learning Torah, fed by a carob tree (Shabbat 33b). Coming out, he scorched with a glance whatever looked like betrayal of the eternal for the plough—and his father had to calm him: "the world stands on them too".

Later the Roman power made him a catcher of brigands, and he handed thieves of his own people to Rome; "vinegar, son of wine", they called after him. He took sufferings upon himself as atonement: at night they were carried out upon him, and in the morning he told the pains "go" (Bava Metzia 83b–85a). After his death his body lay for years in the attic, and disputants came to the door—and heard the ruling. The tale of how he was shamed by an ugly man he had insulted—"tell the Craftsman who made me"—became the lesson of the whole ethics of speech (Taanit 20a–b).

The sources give no years of life; the window of activity is set by generation, following Aharon Hyman's Toldot Tannaim ve-Amoraim.