Simeon ben Gamaliel II

Shimon was a youth in Betar when the Bar Kokhba revolt broke out, but when that fortress was taken by the Romans he managed to escape the massacre.[1][2][3][4] On the restoration of the college at Usha, Shimon was elected its president,[5] this dignity being bestowed upon him not only because he was a descendant of the house of Hillel, but in recognition of his personal worth and influence.

There were many children in his family, one-half of whom were instructed in the Torah, and the other half in Greek philosophy.[1][2][3] Shimon himself seems to have been trained in Greek philosophy;[6] this probably accounting for his declaring later that the Scriptures might be written only in the original text and in Greek.[7][8][9] Shimon appears to have studied natural science as well, for some of his sayings betray a scientific knowledge of the nature of plants and animals, while others concern the anatomy of the human body and the means of avoiding or of curing disease.[10][11][12][13][14][15][16] It is not known who were his teachers in the Halakah; he transmits sayings of R. Judah bar Ilai,[17] of R. Meir,[18][19][20][21] and of R. Jose bar Ḥalafta.[22][23] The last-named was honored as a teacher by Shimon, who addressed questions to him, and put many of his decisions into practice.[24][22]

During Shimon's patriarchate the Jews were harried by daily persecutions and oppressions. In regard to these Shimon observes: "Our forefathers knew suffering only from a distance, but we have been surrounded by it for so many days, years, and cycles that we are more justified than they in becoming impatient".[25] "Were we, as of yore, to inscribe upon a memorial scroll our sufferings and our occasional deliverances therefrom, we should not find room for all".[26]

Jewish internal affairs were more firmly organized by Shimon ben Gamaliel, and the patriarchate attained under him a degree of honor previously unknown. While formerly only two persons, the nasi and the ab bet din, presided over the college, Shimon established the additional office of "ḥakam", with authority equal to that of the others, appointing Rabbi Meir to the new office. In order, however, to distinguish between the dignity of the patriarchal office and that attaching to the offices of the ab bet din and the ḥakam, Shimon issued an order to the effect that the honors formerly bestowed alike upon the nasi and the ab bet din were henceforth to be reserved for the patriarch (nasi), while minor honors were to be accorded the ab bet din and the ḥakam. By this ruling Shimon incurred the enmity of R. Meir, the ḥakam, and of R. Nathan, the ab bet din.[27] Shimon had made this arrangement, not from personal motives, but in order to increase the authority of the college over which the nasi presided, and to promote due respect for learning. His personal humility is evidenced by his sayings to his son Judah I, as well as by the latter's sayings.[28][29]

His traditional burial location is in Kfar Manda in the Lower Galilee.

Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography:

• Heilprin, Seder ha-Dorot, ii. 368-370;
• Frankel, Hodegetica in Mischnam, pp. 178–185;
• Weiss, Dor ii. 171–177;
• Brüll, Einleitung in die Mischna, i. 203–209;
• Ph. Bloch, in Monatsschrift, 1864, pp. 81–97, 121-133;
• Grätz, Gesch. iv. 173, 187–189;
• Bacher, Ag. Tan. ii. 322-334.