Eliezer ben Shimon
130 CE–200 CE · Tannaim · Meron (Galilee)
Rabbi Eliezer ben Shimon was a late Tanna of the second century, remembered as the son of Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai, the legendary mystic of Meron in the Galilee. He inherited his father's spiritual authority and was active in the decades following the Bar Kokhba Revolt. Eliezer ben Shimon is known in Talmudic tradition for his sharp interpretive skills and his willingness to challenge established practices. He served the Roman authorities as a commissioner charged with hunting down bandits and criminals—a role that drew sharp condemnation from his rabbinic colleagues. His teachings survive scattered through the Mishnah and Gemara, often in dispute with his contemporaries, and he represents a generation attempting to rebuild Jewish communal life under Roman rule.
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Meron (Galilee)מירוןGalilee, Israel
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Meron (Galilee) in this era
Under Roman rule, in the shadow of the Bar Kokhba Revolt's devastation (132–135 CE), Meron in the Galilean hills was a center of Jewish learning and piety during the decades when R. Eliezer ben Shimon lived there. The Jewish communities of Galilee, though diminished by Roman repression, rebuilt themselves around Torah study and rabbinic courts; Meron became known as a place of ascetic devotion and mystical contemplation, drawing students who sought intensive study of Jewish law. The Roman authorities, having crushed the rebellion and annexed Judea more firmly, allowed Jewish life in Galilee to flourish again—at least in spiritual and intellectual terms—though the memory of the recent war shaped every community's caution and resolve. R. Eliezer ben Shimon embodied this period: a tanna whose teachings emerged from a generation that had witnessed apocalypse and learned to rebuild meaning through rigorous exegesis and ethical discipline, establishing Meron as a beacon of post-rebellion Jewish renewal.
About Meron (Galilee)
Traditional burial site of R. Shimon bar Yochai; major Lag BaOmer pilgrimage site.
In Meron (Galilee) at the same time
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Eliezer ben Shimon’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Eliezer ben Shimon’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Jewish world
- Anonymous (Sefer Yetzirah author)· 200 BCE–500 CE
- Yehoshua ben Korcha· 100 CE–190 CE
- Yochanan HaSandlar (the Cobbler)· 100 CE–170 CE
- Rabbi Nehorai· 100 CE–170 CE
- Shimon ben Gamliel II· 100 CE–165 CE
- Yehuda bar Ilai· 110 CE–180 CE
- Eleazar ben Shamua· 110 CE–180 CE
- Nechemia· 110 CE–180 CE
- Eliezer ben Yaakov (II)· 110 CE–180 CE
- Natan HaBavli (the Babylonian)· 110 CE–180 CE
- Rabbi Yose ben Halafta· 110 CE–180 CE
- Rabbi Meir· 110 CE–175 CE
- Beruriah bat Chananyah ben Teradion (wife of R. Meir)· 110 CE–170 CE
- Symmachus ben Joseph· 120 CE–190 CE
- Yehudah HaNasi (Rabbi)· 135 CE–217 CE
- Yose ben Yehuda· 140 CE–210 CE
- Shimon ben Eleazar· 140 CE–210 CE
- Pinchas ben Yair (son-in-law of Rashbi)· 140 CE–220 CE
- Chiyya bar Abba (the Elder)· 150 CE–220 CE
- Bar Kappara· 150 CE–220 CE
- Levi bar Sisi· 160 CE–230 CE
- Mar Ukva (Resh Galuta)· 165 CE–240 CE
- Rav (Abba Arikha)· 175 CE–247 CE
- Karna (Dayyana di-Galuta)· 180 CE–250 CE
Graeco-Roman world
Christian world
Scientists
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.