JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

on the border of the Judean Desert. His language is harsh, and
he frequently threatens them with punishment if they fail to
carry out his orders (“and if you will not do this, you will be
punished”). In a Hebrew letter to Jonathan and Masbelah of
En-Gedi, Bar Kokhba orders them to attend to the loading of
a boat anchored in the harbor there. To the commanders in
the rear and the population of the inhabited area of the desert,
with whom he was incensed for having failed to supply
food as he had commanded and who had neglected their duty,
Bar Kokhba uses stern language: “You are living well, eating
and drinking off the property of the house of Israel, and care
nothing about your brethren.”
In an Aramaic letter to Judah b. Manasseh of Kiryat Araviyah,
Bar Kokhba orders Judah to supply him with the *Four
Species for Tabernacles and apparently reminds him about
separating the tithe: ןהתי ןקתו (“and give the dues from them”).
Such references, made incidentally or hinted at in the letters,
may indicate that Bar Kokhba’s men, even under danger,
strictly and quite naturally kept the commandments of Judaism,
such as the sanctity of the Sabbath, the laws of the priestly
and levitical dues, and the fullest observance of festivals.
The letters and other documents uncovered in the Judean
Desert contain nothing specific about the attitude of the sages
toward the rule of Bar Kokhba nor is there any mention in
them of Bethar and of the war there. Nevertheless it is possible
to comprehend from them explicitly and at first hand
about Bar Kokhba’s aggressive personality and his status, the
economic straits in which the fighters of Judea found themselves,
and the geographic extent of the revolt. The nasi was
concerned about supply problems, food for his camp, and matters
pertaining to real estate. The economic documents found
in Wadi Muraba’at show that leases were made in the name
and with the sanction of Bar Kokhba: “On the instructions of
Simeon b. Koseva.” Apparently the land belonged nominally
to the nasi, it being clearly stated in a lease, “You have leased
the ground from Simeon, the Nasi of Israel.” In his name the
lessors laid down the quota of grain that was to be given to
them. As was to be expected in a time of war, the authorities
insisted on the cultivation of the fields and confiscated the
lands of those who neglected to till them. They “were dispossessed
of the land and lost everything.” In effect, Bar Kokhba
regarded himself as holding the authority of the Roman emperor
and transferred the lands of liberated Judea to his own
possession. His orders concerning leases, sales, and confiscations
were grounded on a juridical succession to the Roman
rule, by virtue of which he was empowered to exercise control
over the lands of Judea and confiscate property for the public
good. Contracts found in Naḥal Ḥever indicate that Bar
Kokhba wished to prevent the concentration of the lands of
En-Gedi in the hands of a few owners in order to increase the
supply of food in a time of stress.
From the names of the settlements mentioned in these
documents, Bar Kokhba’s men apparently controlled extensive
areas, in the frontier regions of the Judean mountains, in the
neighborhood of Bet Guvrin (Ir-Nahash), and in the Judean
bar kokhba
Desert, and maintained contact, it seems, with regions east
and south of the Dead Sea, such as Ma’aleh ha-Luḥit in the
district of Eglatin in Moab and Zoar in the Aravah. Herodium,
the town of Herod about 6 mi. (10 km.) southeast of Jerusalem
and mentioned in the documents, became an economic center
in which the nasi’s representatives were stationed; En-Gedi
was an important supply harbor for the rebels. The settlements
of Tekoa and Kiryat Araviyah in the vicinity of Bethlehem are
mentioned in the documents. According to the reconstruction
of םילש… ב as Jerusalem, proposed by J.T. Milik who made a
study of the Wadi Muraba’at documents, that city is referred
to in two of them, one dating from the second, and the other
from the fourth year “of the liberation of Israel” (Elul, 133 and
Tishrei, 134, respectively). After the defeat, the fugitives from
the war in Judea gathered in the Judean Desert, which then became
the rebel center. The remains of Roman military camps
found above the caves in Naḥal Ḥever show that the legions
besieged the remnants of the fighters who, together with their
families, had taken refuge in these hiding places. Surrounded
by the Romans, there they met their death.
[Samuel Abramsky]
New Archaeological Finds
Since the writing of the above in the late 1960s new archaeological
information concerning the Bar Kokhba revolt has
emerged as a result of the intensive investigation of hundreds
of refuge caves and underground hiding complexes. Refuge
caves are found mainly in the Judean Desert and in the cliffs
overlooking the Dead Sea, and were used as shelters for Jewish
refugees at the close of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Underground
hiding complexes, however, were subterranean warrens hewn
artificially under or near residential buildings within Jewish
towns and villages (some 125 sites according to a recent
count). They have been found in the Judean Shephela, and in
the Beth-El and Hebron Mountains, and reflect the general
boundaries of the area that was under Bar Kokhba’s administration.
Excavations at the Abi’or Cave in the Judean Desert
in 1986 and later in 1993 brought to light numerous fragments
of new documents written on papyri in Greek and Aramaic.
Additional finds from the cave consisted of textiles, ropes, and
parts of sandals. These items were brought to the cave and hidden
there towards the end of the revolt.
Excavations conducted in 1984 by Tel Aviv University
confirmed that Khirbet al-Yahud (10 acres in size) is indeed
*Bethar, the last bastion of Bar Kokhba. Hastily erected fortifications
were uncovered and the discovery of slingstones and
arrowheads indicates that a battle took place there. Roman
siege camps were also identified in the vicinity of Bethar (present-day
Battir).
Various artifacts dating from the time of the revolt have
been unearthed at a number of sites and within underground
hiding complexes, notably various forms of pottery, stone
vessels, and coins. An important discovery was that of a lead
weight found at Horvat ‘Alim in the Shephela, bearing the
name and title of Bar Kokhba, which was evidently used for
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