The Prayer of R. Simeon bar Yoḥai

These are the secrets and revelations divulged to R. Šim‘ōn. This is R. Šim‘ōn ben Yoḥai whom they dispatched from Jerusalem to Rome to [entreat] Caesar. While he was [still voyaging] on the ship, Ašmedai, ruler of the demons, appeared to him [in] a dream. He [Ašmedai] addressed him, “Ask what I might do for you!” R. Šim‘ōn responded, “Who are you…

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The anonymous work that scholars refer to as The Prayer of R. Simeon bar Yoḥai is a twelfth-century pseudepigraphic text, which describes Simeon (here, Šim‘ōn) bar Yoḥai’s request to determine the date of the redemption. This work expands on the more influential, mid-eighth century (late-Umayyad era) work The Secrets of R. Simeon bar Yoḥai (Nistarot R. Shim‘on bar Yoḥai) and refers to events from the Crusades (perhaps the First or the Third Crusade), providing its twelfth-century date. In contrast with the earlier Secrets, the Prayer omits or reworks references to the fall of the Umayyads. Few manuscripts of this work survive.

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