Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai רבי שמעון בר יוחאי
Tanna, thirteen years in a cave, by tradition the author of the Zohar
Rabbi Shimon studied with Rabbi Akiva for twelve years and stayed with him to the end. After Hadrian's persecutions he said aloud what others only thought about Rome—"everything they built, they built for themselves"—and was sentenced to death.
He fled with his son Rabbi Elazar. The Talmud tells that they hid in a cave, buried to the neck in sand, studying Torah for thirteen years, fed by a carob tree and a spring. When they emerged and saw a man ploughing his field, Rabbi Shimon's gaze scorched the world: "they abandon eternal life for the passing one". A heavenly voice sent them back for another year, until they could look at the world differently.
His teachings in the Talmud speak of trust in God, the holiness of the Land, and the promise that Torah will never be forgotten. Kabbalistic tradition attributes to him the Zohar. The day of his death, Lag BaOmer, still draws crowds to his grave at Meron.
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Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Bereishit Rabbah — his sayings in the midrash
- Shabbat 33b–34a — Rome’s sentence, thirteen years in the cave, and the purification of Tiberias
- Sukkah 45b — “I have seen men of ascent, and they are few”
- the Zohar — the book that tradition connects with him (by tradition the teaching of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai; the corpus was published in Castile at the end of the thirteenth century)
Basis: tradition.