Rabbi Elazar, a second-century Tanna, was the son of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and the son-in-law of Rabbi Shimon ben Yosi ben Lakonia. He appears in many of the stories told about his father.

To escape the Romans, he hid with his father in a cave for about thirteen years. The Talmud (Shabbat 33b) relates that a miracle occurred: a carob tree and a spring of water were created for them, and they studied Torah all day. They stayed there twelve years, then returned for another twelve months.

He became a master in his own right, cited in Talmudic literature. In the Zohar he is portrayed as the right hand of his father, the leader of the Zohar circle.

Later the Roman authorities appointed him to a kind of local police command, in charge of catching thieves and bringing them to trial. He afterwards regretted this service and chose to endure great suffering to atone for it.

Fearing that the Sages who bore a grudge against him would not see properly to his burial, he asked that his body be kept in the attic of his house in the village of Akbara. His body was later laid beside that of his father; the tradition, attested since the twelfth century, places their shared tomb in Meron. According to one tradition, his hilloula is observed on 25 Elul in Meron.