(mid-second century CE). Tanna in Eretz Israel and leading disciple of Rabbi Akiba. He was one of five students of Akiba to uphold Torah study among the people after the Bar Kokhba revolt. With the Hadrianic decrees and Akiba's martyrdom, Simeon developed intense hatred of Gentiles, and opposed conciliation with the foreign power. His anti-Roman statements were reported to the Romans by an informer, and they ordered him killed. But he and his son Eleazar hid in a cave for 13 years. After he came out, he became a leader of his people, going on a Sanhedrin mission to Rome. Through his efforts, the ban on Sabbath observance and circumcision was annulled. Simeon led the reconstruction of the country's Jewish public and economic life, and the conversion of Galilee into its center. In Torah study, he favored simple meanings, clarity, and exploring the reasons behind the mitzvot (commandments) and halakhic rulings.
Simeon was believed able to bring God's miraculous intervention in human affairs, and it was said that he would ascend to heaven to study the divine secrets, especially regarding the final redemption. The Zohar, published at the the end of the thirteenth century, when hopes were high of future redemption, was ascribed to him, as is the Mekhilta de-Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai, a collection of midrashim. His traditional burial place is in Meron, near Safed, which led the sixteenth-century kabbalists to make Meron their center. That is when the custom began of holding a celebration at his tomb on Lag ba-Omer, his yahrzeit (death anniversary) day. Some Sephardim sing a long piyyut in praise of him at the Sabbath eve meal.
