Jerusalem Talmud
The commentary on the Mishnah produced by the rabbinic schools of Galilee and completed about AD 400. It preserves traditions about the Bar Kokhba revolt, including Rabbi Akiva’s hailing of its leader as the Messiah.
The Jerusalem (or Palestinian) Talmud records the discussions of the Mishnah in the schools of Tiberias, Sepphoris and Caesarea over some two centuries. It is older and shorter than the Babylonian Talmud.
Its commentary on the fast of the ninth of Av (Ta’anit 4:5) gathers stories about the fall of Betar. One, handed down in the name of Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai, says that his teacher Akiva applied to the rebel leader the verse “a star will come out of Jacob” and called him the King Messiah, and that another rabbi contradicted him. These stories were written down more than two hundred years after the war. They show how the rabbis remembered it, and they are the source of the name Bar Kokhba, “son of the star”, being linked to a messianic claim.