Ahaliba StudioAlexander Jannaeus: The Hero Who Became a Tyrant – Was His Power Also His Downfall?
John Hyrcanus appointed his wife to rule after his death, but he formally granted power to his eldest son, Judah Aristobulus. Judah and his brother Antigonus were the ones who led the army in all the battles. Judah Aristobulus decided that the Hasmonean rule must be transformed into a monarchy. Until then, it had been defined by various titles, but Judah was the first to declare himself King and even minted coins with this title. He placed a crown on his head and adopted all the royal protocols in 104 BCE. The person closest to Judah Aristobulus was his brother Antigonus, who was close in age and friendship. When Judah Aristobulus ascended to power, he imprisoned his other brothers and his mother. His mother was locked up by him and starved to death in captivity.
Judah Aristobulus’s greatest success was the conquest of Galilee and parts of eastern Transjordan. His army general and brother Antigonus achieved these victories. Still, they later worked against him because Judah Aristobulus believed in rumors that Antigonus wanted to rebel against him and become King. Judah Aristobulus was ill during the Feast of Tabernacles, and Antigonus visited him with a full military entourage. People constantly whispered to Judah that his brother rebelled against him, saying, “Look now how he acts like a king, arriving with his entire army.” Doubt about his brother’s intentions began to gnaw at Judah, so he decided to test him—he would call Antigonus to visit him without an army. If Antigonus complied and came alone, it would mean he was subordinate to him, but if he came with the army, he truly intended to exploit the situation to seize the kingdom. The people who sought to sow discord between the brothers relayed the King’s request to Antigonus to visit him but omitted the crucial detail that the King had asked him to come without an army or weapons. After finishing his prayers for his brother at the Temple, in his innocence, Antigonus arrived with his military entourage, as befitted a military leader, unaware that the King had requested otherwise. Judah Aristobulus had positioned men in ambush and instructed them that if his brother came armed, they should kill him. And so it happened: Antigonus arrived armed, and Judah’s men killed him. After Antigonus’s death, when Judah Aristobulus realized his mistake, he regretted it deeply. Some say that from then on, his health began to decline due to grief, and he died shortly thereafter from illness. In total, he reigned for a brief period of one year.
Judah Aristobulus was married to a woman named Shlomtzion, who became the ruler after him. They had no children, and after Judah’s death, Shlomtzion released Judah’s brothers from imprisonment and then appointed Alexander Jannaeus, the eldest of the surviving brothers (his name was Jonathan Alexander, with “Jannaeus” being a nickname that stuck), as ruler of the state. She also married him. In their writings, Alexander Jannaeus, the Hasmonean ruler most mentioned by Chazal, is described as a wicked and cruel king.
Jannaeus greatly intensified Aristobulus’ royal protocols. Militarily, he continued the path of his father, John Hyrcanus, and during his reign, he significantly expanded his kingdom. He launched many military campaigns, and in his time, the Hasmonean kingdom peaked in size. At the beginning of his rule, his war was to conquer the north; he captured Acre and the Hellenistic cities in the northern part of his kingdom. But when the inhabitants of Acre were under siege, they called for help from Ptolemy Lathyrus, a prince from Egypt who was controlled by his mother, the Egyptian queen Cleopatra. He had settled in Cyprus and built his army there. Ptolemy Lathyrus came to the aid of Acre’s residents with a very strong army. Ptolemy managed to drive Alexander Jannaeus back in battles across the Jezreel Valley and Lower Galilee. Eventually, the battles stalled along the Jordan River line. Seeing that he could not succeed and fearing that Ptolemy Lathyrus would begin conquering his kingdom, Jannaeus called for help from Ptolemy Lathyrus’s mother, Queen Cleopatra. The Egyptian queen did not favor her son Lathyrus’s expansionist ambitions, so she sent the Egyptian army to Israel under the command of two Jewish army generals—Hilkiah and Hananiah, from the family of Onias IV. The Onias family was a very prominent Jewish family in Egypt, a priestly family. When they came to Jannaeus’s aid on Cleopatra’s orders, they drove out Ptolemy Lathyrus. Jannaeus seized this opportunity and began conquering the Hellenistic coastal cities on the plain. The cities Jannaeus captured were very important economically and strategically.
A year later, Jannaeus launched a successful military campaign toward eastern Transjordan, conquering large parts of the Golan and Bashan. Another year later (in 100 BCE), Jannaeus succeeded in capturing Gaza, a major and prosperous port city, and then he began destroying Gaza. He razed the port and caused significant damage, rendering it unusable, which gave him an advantage in controlling all the ports in the coastal cities. After the conquest of Gaza, which took several years, he set out to conquer Moab in eastern Transjordan (south of the Dead Sea), and for the first time in Jannaeus’s period, the entire Dead Sea was within the Hasmonean kingdom.
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Alexander Jannaeus: Did His Power Destroy Him – From Victor of Battles to His Own Greatest Enemy?
Jannaeus did not succeed in all his battles, such as the Battle of Acre, which resulted in the death of many of his fighters. He also had other unsuccessful battles, like the one where he ceased being a vassal to the King of the Arabs and other kings. Jannaeus made many enemies, both external and internal. Externally, these were the kings he conquered and subjugated; internally, he had many haters. Jannaeus continued his father’s path, choosing in his later years to align with the Sadducee group and oppose the Pharisees. He opposed them very harshly, which manifested in several ways.
In the Gemara in Massehet Sanhedrin, the Gemara tells us that the kings of Israel are neither judged nor testified. Why? Because of an incident involving Jannaeus: a slave of King Jannaeus killed a person, and Shimon ben Shetach (one of the leading sages of the Sanhedrin and the brother of Queen Shlomtzion) said to the sages, “Set your eyes on him and let us judge him. When a slave kills a person, we judge his master.” The sages sent a message to Jannaeus that his slave had killed someone and that both he and his master (the King) needed to be judged. King Jannaeus, upon being summoned to the trial by the sages, arrived at the hearing. Shimon ben Shetach said to the King, “Stand on your feet and let them testify against you, for you do not stand before us but before Him who spoke and the world came into being.” Jannaeus replied, “I will not do what you say but what the sages of the Sanhedrin say.” He turned to the sages on his right, and they lowered their faces to the ground; he turned to those on his left, and they did the same. The judges of the Sanhedrin were truly afraid of Jannaeus. Shimon ben Shetach told them, “You are men of thoughts; a man of thoughts will come and exact retribution from you” (you fear a mortal king, so the King of the Universe will exact retribution from you). Immediately, the angel Gabriel came and struck them into the ground, and the sages of the Sanhedrin died. At that moment, they decreed that a king is neither judged nor testifies.
King Jannaeus was a figure who instilled fear in the sages of Israel, and they were afraid to act against him, reflecting his governance style. Another example of Jannaeus’s disdain for the sanctity of Israel is found in a story in the Gemara: King Jannaeus and Queen Shlomtzion, while eating, debated which meat was better. They said, “Let’s call Issachar of Kfar Barkai, the High Priest, to tell us which meats are best.” When they asked him, he pointed with his right hand at the kid and said it was the best, but what he said was not what the King wanted to hear, so the King ordered that his right hand be cut off. Issachar, fearing the loss of his right hand (which was crucial for him), bribed the King’s servants to cut off his left hand instead. They cut off his left hand, but when the King heard about it, he ordered that his right hand be cut off as well. This illustrates the disdain King Jannaeus had for the priests and sacred matters.
The most significant story about Jannaeus appears in the Gemara in Massehet Kiddushin and also in the works of Josephus Flavius (although he attributes the story to Hyrcanus, we follow the opinion of the sages of the Gemara):
“There was an incident with King Jannaeus, who went to the Koachlit in the desert and conquered sixty cities (he had a successful campaign of conquest and plunder). Upon his return, he was overjoyed and invited all the sages of Israel. He said to them, ‘Our fathers ate salted foods while they were busy building the Temple, so let us also eat salted foods in memory of our fathers’ (Jannaeus held a great thanksgiving feast for his victory), and they brought salted foods on golden tables and ate. And there was a man there, a scoffer with an evil heart and a villain named Eleazar ben Poira, who said to King Jannaeus, ‘King Jannaeus, the hearts of the Pharisees (the sages of Israel) are against you!’ (meaning the Pharisees do not like you). He asked, ‘And what should I do about them?’ He said, ‘Put on the frontlet between your eyes’ (wear the garments of the High Priest and see how they behave toward you). He put on the frontlet between his eyes. There was an elder there named Judah ben Gedidya, who said to King Jannaeus, ‘King Jannaeus, the crown of kingship is enough for you; leave the crown of priesthood to the seed of Aaron!’ (The wise elder told him that he was already a king and didn’t need to be both King and priest, which led to tension between Jannaeus and the sages of Israel). And Eleazar ben Poira said to King Jannaeus, ‘King Jannaeus, even the lowliest in Israel is judged this way, and you, a king and High Priest, are judged this way?’ (The sages stood up and left in the middle of the feast, showing contempt for you). He asked, ‘And what should I do to them?’ He said, ‘If you listen to my advice, crush them.’ Jannaeus asked, ‘And what will become of the Torah?’ He said, ‘It will be rolled up in a corner; whoever wants to learn can come and learn.’ Immediately, Jannaeus arose and killed all the sages of Israel, and the world was astonished until Shimon ben Shetach came and restored the crown to its former state.” In this harsh story, King Jannaeus killed all the sages of Israel. Joshua ben Perachiah, one of the sages, fled to Egypt and managed to escape, while Shimon ben Shetach was hidden and saved by his sister, Queen Shlomtzion, from Jannaeus.
In the eyes of the Talmud, he was a very cruel king who murdered many Jews, including the sages of Israel, and a revolt broke out against Jannaeus among the Jewish people. The revolt had several causes. First, Jannaeus’s military failures, which led to the deaths of many of the Jewish people, caused great unrest. Additionally, Jannaeus’s conflict with the Pharisees and his murder of the sages of Israel led to the people hating him because the Pharisees were the spiritual leaders of the people, whom the people followed and loved. Moreover, the people disliked that Jannaeus took the priesthood for himself, as he was not religious or righteous; on the contrary, he was a Hellenistic king who seized the priesthood through murder and brute force, appointing himself as a priest in the Temple. The popular uprising began during the Feast of Tabernacles when Jannaeus served in the Temple. He decided to invent his water libation ritual because he was a Sadducee, performing the water libation ceremony as he wanted, not as required by the Torah, and then people from the crowd began throwing etrogs at him.
The great revolt that erupted, Jannaeus suppressed with a very heavy hand. He killed thousands of Jews, erected a fence preventing people from entering the Temple, began fighting the Jewish rebels, and killed 50,000 of them (according to Josephus Flavius). Jannaeus became isolated and distant from the people, aligning himself with the Sadducees, mostly a small elite group. At the same time, the rebels even sought help from external forces—like Demetrius and the King of the Arabs, whom Jannaeus had to fight in difficult battles, some of which he also lost. Eventually, after a period, he crushed the revolt with great cruelty. Jannaeus took the Jewish captives to Jerusalem, crucified 800 of them, and killed their wives and children before their eyes (there is also archaeological evidence supporting the execution of women and children in Jerusalem during this period).
Thousands of Jews fled the land out of fear of King Jannaeus, and he was called by the people “Tarchidah,” a nickname for something extremely cruel and barbaric. After he had suppressed the revolt, it did not add to his honor; he remained disconnected from a people who hated and distanced themselves from him. In his later years, there was a change in Jannaeus’s behavior. In the Gemara in Massehet Berachot, it is told that King Jannaeus and the queen were eating bread. After Jannaeus killed all the sages, there was no one to rule on halachic matters for him and no one to tell him what blessing to say over the bread (another matter showing his great disdain, as he took the priesthood for himself without knowing Torah and commandments, not even knowing the blessing over bread, which even a young Jew knows). Then he told his wife, “I wish someone could come and bless us.” His wife Shlomtzion said, “If I bring someone from the sages of Israel, do you promise not to kill him?” He said yes, and she went and brought her brother Shimon ben Shetach, whom she had hidden, and he came and blessed. This story shows Jannaeus’s low religious level, as he pretended to be a king in Israel, and yet also reveals a certain desire to return to Jewish roots and the desire to bless.
Alexander Jannaeus and His Legacy: Did Shlomtzion Save the Kingdom – or Merely Delay Its Collapse?
In his later years, Jannaeus continued his military campaigns, setting out on an expedition in the Golan and eastern Transjordan, with his greatest achievement being the conquest of Gamla, which was very difficult to capture, and he succeeded in taking Gamla. But during these campaigns, he likely contracted malaria. After returning to Jerusalem, he again went out on a military campaign in which he died of his illness. While on his deathbed during the war (according to Josephus Flavius), he issued the following instructions to his wife: he asked that the news of his death be concealed from the soldiers to avoid demoralizing them during the battle, to be revealed only after the victory. He also instructed that Shlomtzion should be queen after him, and to ensure she had peace and success in the kingdom; he commanded her to grant some power to the Pharisees and honor them so they would not oppose her. Jannaeus understood that all his battles with the Pharisees only incited the people against him, so in his practical will at the end of his days, he admitted that the King must align with the people, which was the right way to govern.
Even during Jannaeus’s rule, Shlomtzion was a full partner in governing the state, though she did not always agree with his methods. One example was the appointment of Antipater, the father of Herod, as the Idumean governor—the same Herod who eventually brought about the end of the Hasmonean kingdom. Shlomtzion reigned for nine years. Politically, she was a strong queen and preserved her husband Jannaeus’s achievements. She doubled the army’s size, assembled a large mercenary force, and ruled over foreign lands. Queen Shlomtzion heeded her husband’s will and restored the Pharisees to power, allowing them to maintain a judicial system, including capital cases.
On the second of Shevat, King Jannaeus died, and it became a festive day for the Jewish people. They said that when King Jannaeus fell ill, he arrested 70 elders of Israel and imprisoned them, ordering the prison warden that on the day he died, these elders should be killed so that the Jewish people would mourn and grieve and not make a festive day on the day Jannaeus died. When Jannaeus died, Shlomtzion removed his ring from his finger and sent it to the prison warden before she announced Jannaeus’s death, telling the warden that Jannaeus had requested that the prisoners be released. They were released and went home, and only afterward did she announce that King Jannaeus had died, and they made it a festive day. Thus, Shalomtzion was aware of her husband’s evil deeds and did not agree with them.
She was a queen who governed the people well, unlike her husband. Politically, she stabilized the kingdom, and socially and religiously, she connected the people to the monarchy by aligning with the Pharisees. She is remembered in Chazal literature as a good queen. Under her rule, the Pharisees executed all those who had been complicit in the massacre Jannaeus had committed, mostly Sadducees. The Sadducees, close to Jannaeus and mostly aristocrats, army commanders, and the like, feared for their lives and turned to the queen for protection. They threatened that if she did not protect them, they would join rival groups in the region, such as the King of the Arabs, who would be glad to have them, or other regional leaders.
On the other hand, they wanted to serve the queen. The Pharisee aristocrats sought protection from the queen and asked her to place them in some of her fortresses, where they would live under her rule. They were willing to live in poverty as long as she allowed them to serve her.
Queen Shlomtzion had two sons, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus. At the beginning of her reign, she divided the roles between them: she appointed Hyrcanus as High Priest and Aristobulus as commander of the army. Aristobulus was a fervent supporter of the Sadducees and did not favor his mother’s preference for the Pharisees over the Sadducees, so he pushed his mother to forgive the Sadducees and grant them protection. Behind Aristobulus’s actions was a plan of his own. After several years, Shlomtzion fell seriously ill and took to her bed. Aristobulus feared that upon her death, the monarchy would be given to Hyrcanus, the eldest, so he turned to the Sadducees, who had become managers of the fortresses and organized a military rebellion with them.
Shlomtzion noticed that Aristobulus had disappeared but did not attribute much importance to it. However, he returned with an army and began to seize control of the monarchy. Shlomtzion took Aristobulus’s wife and children and held them as hostages in a fortress. However, Aristobulus was very successful in his rebellion and, within two weeks, took control of 22 locations, many fortresses, and treasures. Hyrcanus and the Pharisees approached Queen Shlomtzion and asked her to act against him, and she gave them free rein, but she died shortly thereafter in 77 BCE.
Credit: Written and edited from the series of lessons by Rabbi Zvi Haber, “Azi Bami Hashmanim.”
