HaRav Akiba Ben Yosef ZT”L HY”D who
was an unbelievably brilliant Chakham
who’s major contributions to the Mishnah
and Midrash will always be adhered to,
cherished and remembered, at one point did,
along with other Rabbinic Talmid Chachamim
believed that especially in view of the great
“revolt” that Simon Bar Kokhba could have
been the Messiah but as great and powerful
a leader as he was, in the beginning and in the
end, was not Mashiach.