Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai and his Generation, Part I: The Debacle and the Challenge

Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai (Rashbi) is one of the most evocative figures in Jewish history. Not only is he one of the greatest tanna'im and a primary disciple of Rabbi Akiva, but he is credited with composing the Zohar during the thirteen years that he lived in a cave, hiding from the Romans. In this series, we will look not only at the famous aggadot about Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai from Shabbat 33b-34a, but at a series of passages from the Gemara that broaden the story into something much bigger. Throughout the series, I will offer occasional historical and methodological points about the composition of the Gemara (specifically the Bavli) and how to learn it. We will make extensive use of parallel passages from elsewhere in Rabbinic literature in order to understand what the Bavli's editors are trying to teach when they reshape the materials they received into the stories before us. This is not a history series. We may occasionally discuss historical events, but the primary focus is to understand the Gemara itself. In this first episode, we discuss the setting of the Rashbi stories: when and where Rashbi lived, who his contemporaries were, who his teachers and students were, and what momentous events transpired in his lifetime.