The Sukkos Festival Celebration That Sparked a Jewish Civil War

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More than two thousand years ago, our ancestors celebrated a Sukkos in Jerusalem in a most heartbreaking and painful manner. The four species which they were supposed to hold together to signify the intrinsic unity of our people was used as a means to express anger and hatred to the Kohen Gadol in the Beis HaMikdash who had not only declared himself king but disparaged the presence of the Shechina on Succos during  the “Nisuch Hamayim” (Pouring of the Water) ceremony . According to tradition, on each day of Sukkos, a pitcher of water, drawn from the waters of the Shiloach Spring  was supposed to be poured together with the  wine over the Altar.

At the Simchas Beis HaShoeva, when Alexander Janneus  Yannia (126 B.C.E-76 B.C.E.) was handed the pitcher of water, he displayed his contempt for the Perushim (Jews separated from the rest by their adherence to Halachah) by pouring the libation on the floor instead of on the altar. Several thousand shocked  and outraged  Jews  pelted  Alexander Yanai with their Esrogim.  The cruel leader took instant revenge, by ruthlessly ordering his non-Jewish soldiers, Pisidian and Cilician mercenaries to kill the more than 6000 Jews who had gathered in the courtyard of the Beis HaMikdash .

Alexander Yannai was a son of Yochanan Kohen Gadol (Yochanan Hurkanos) and grandson of Shimon the brother of Yehudah HaMaccabi, the hero of Chanukah. Alexander Yannai’s great grandfather Mattisyahu was the first Hashmonean who fought against the Greco-Syrians to preserve the purity of the Torah and the Beis HaMikdash.

Sadly Mattityahu’s great-grandson did not receive a Torah and spiritual upbringing; he was raised as a Grecian with an emphasis on military training and Hellenism.

Yehudah Aristobulus  Alexander Yannai’s half brother( they shared a father) had preceded Alexander Yannai as Kohen Gadol. Aristoblus, who felt threatened,  had his half brothers and their mother imprisoned in order to ensure they do not dethrone him.

Not having been satisfied with the title “Nasi” (Prince) Aristoblus  had himself crowned as “king.” However he ruled for less than a year. He became ill and died leaving his wife Queen Shlomis Alexandera without any children.

Before becoming the High Priest, Alexander Yannai  was released from jail by thirty-seven year old Queen Shlomis Alexandera who wanted to marry her 22 year old brother-in-law to beget children from him. Alexander Yannai agreed to marry her in order to become king. She was the sister of Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach, who was to eventually become the head of the Sanhedrin and he believed by marrying her he would widen his aristocratic circle.

Since it was before he assumed the clothing of the Kohen Gadol, he was permitted according to Halacha to marry his sister-in-law and observe the Mitzvah of Yibum (levirate marriage) which is forbidden to a Kohen Gadol

This event in which thousands of Esrogim were thrown at Alexander Yannai  took place during  Sukkos  circa 104 BCE and was a major factor leading up to the Judean Civil War. For six years afterwards  more than 50,000 Jews were killed in the war of the Perushim (Pharisees) who fought Alexander Yannai’s royal troops.

The Pharisees negotiated with the Greco-Syrian king, Demetrius III., whom they engaged to fight against their monarch. They believed that being ruled by a foreigner, who would permit them to freely observe their religion, was  preferable to being independent and under the subservience of  a Zadokite, a scion of the High Priest family  of Zadok HaKohen who did not adhere to Halacha. They also believed that the King should be descended from King David and not from the priestly family and opposed Alexander Yannai serving as king.

However, after a bloody battle near Shechem between Alexander Yannai and Demetrius, in which  Alexander Yannai lost almost his entire army and  escaped into the mountains, a large number of the Pharisees who had joined with the Syrians  regretted their ways and went over to Alexander, forcing Demetrius to withdraw from Judea.

Instead of making peace with them, Alexander Yannai treated them with excessive and inhuman cruelty. Upon the advice of  his counsel, Diogenes, he had eight hundred Pharisees killed by having them nailed to crosses and for this he was nicknamed “the Hangman.”  In addition before their own crucifixions, Alexander forced them to witness the execution of their wives and children. As a result, 8000 Jews fled to Syria and  Egypt. Many of the Jews who fled north to Syria were massacred near Chalcis while a small percentage of the refugees survived in Bet Zabdai.

The Tannaim Shimon Ben Shetach (who had been a frequent guest of the palace) and Yehuda ben Tabai, found refuge in Alexandria, Egypt.

Although a ruthless ruler,  Alexander Yannai was a military genius and expanded Judea. He gained control of the entire coastal region from Mount Carmel in the north down to the Egyptian border.  During a three year war (85-82 BCE) he conquered Pella, Dium, Gerasa, Gaulana, Seleucia, and the strong fortress Gamala in the east of the Jordan River

Alexander Yannai was an alcoholic whose inebriety and constant fever caused his premature death at the age of 49. He was in the midst of trying to capture the fortified town of Ragaba in the Galilee when he died on the second of Shevat 76 BCE.

One can imagine how deep was the hatred of the Jewish people that Alexander Yannai’s death was declared a holiday and celebrated by the Jewish community. It was a date on which eulogies were forbidden to be delivered and fasting was prohibited. The death of Alexander Yannai  also  brought the release of many Torah sages from  prison.

The Tannaim including Rabbi Shimon Ben Shetach returned to Jerusalem. The latter’s mentor Rabbi Yehoshua ben Prachya who has  presided over the Sanhedrin, returned from Alexandria as well to his earlier position.

Queen Shlomis Alexandera, who was very favorably disposed to the Pharisees returned the Sanhedrin to its former Torah true institution and Torah once again flourished during the nine years that the queen survived her husband. She appointed her son Hurkenus to be the Kohen Gadol who adhered to Halacha.

The Gemorah relates that during the reign of Shlomis Alexandra , “as a reward for her piety, rain fell only on  Friday nights (Shabbos); so that the working class would not suffer any loss of pay through  rain falling during their work-time. The fertility of the soil was so great that the grains of wheat grew as large as kidney beans; oats as large as olives; and lentils as large as gold denarii…”

Shlomis Alexandra is one of the very few people mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls. She is called Shelamzion in scroll 4Q322. In the scroll entitled Pesher Nachum,  the cruel reign of Alexander Jannaeus, whom it calls “the Lion of Wrath,” is described. He is not mentioned by name but scholars have concluded that it is him based on his deeds that are also mentioned in Josephus.

Sadly after Shlomis Alexandra’s death, her younger son Aristoblus attacked his older brother Hurkenus. After much fighting between them, they involved the Romans. Pompey conquered Judea in 63 B.C.E. and made it a Roman province.

Less than a hundred fifty years later, in 70 C.E. the Beis HaMikdash which witnessed the Sukkos festival debacle is destroyed.