As you know, you can read the Torah as genealogy, tribal history, or spiritual thoughts. To me how one reads the bible starts at the beginning. "Am I my brother's keeper." I answer yes.

Bar Kochba wasn't a failed rebellion to me, it was a failure to obey God's commandments, which we know intuitively, direct from him. Unless we answer the question above, 'no.'

Then, of course, you'll read the Torah to rationalize why your brother's failure isn't also your own.