Alexander Yonatan, known as mentioned above by his nickname "Yanai", became famous as someone who emphasized more than his predecessors the Hellenistic characteristics in himself, in his court, in his army, among his supporters and in more distant circles, and as a suppressor of a mass rebellion against him
When Aristobulus died in 103 BC, after ruling for about one year, his brother Jonathan succeeded to his throne, who married his brother's wife, Shlomzion (or Shalom, Salome) Alexandra, fourteen years older than him, Kibama, who may have helped him to succeed his brother, and perhaps She actually made him queen, hence his name - Alexander.
Yosef ben Mattathias says that Yohanan Hyrcanus preferred that his throne be inherited by Antigonus or Aristobulus, as was really the case, but once he learned in a dream that his throne would be succeeded by Alexander Jonathan (whom he called Yanai) and immediately the king became angry, and even made sure that Alexander was raised and educated in Galilee and not in Jerusalem, and probably Hyrcanus had something to fear from giving the royal scepter to Yanai. Indeed, with the death of Aristobulus, Yanai made sure to eliminate one of his brothers, who might have endangered his inheritance, and another brother was saved from a similar fate because he decided to withdraw his hand from the leadership business, leaving the position vacant for Alexander Yonathan Yanai.
This Jonathan, known as mentioned above by his nickname "Yanai", became famous as someone who emphasized more than his predecessors the Hellenistic characteristics in himself, in his court, in his army, among his supporters and in more distant circles.
First he called himself Alexander, in terms of a binding name and crowned with a royal aura. Unlike his predecessors, quite a few coins that he minted and issued were uncovered, and this treasure may mainly indicate a great degree of independence that he assumed for himself, albeit at considerable risk.
These coins indicate political sophistication - there are coins, ones that appealed more to the somewhat traditional Jewish public. These were written in Hebrew and in them Yanai/Jonathan is mentioned as a high priest and next to him the frame called "The Friend of the Jews". These coins are decorated with Jewish symbols such as a pair of cornucopias with a pomegranate between them.
On the other hand, other coins were minted in Greek, such as one of them showing an anchor surrounded by a ribbon, to teach about the maritime commercial activity initiated by the king and the taking over of seaports, and the inscription around the anchor was Alexander the King, in Greek of course. In other words, Alexander practiced political duplicity in order to gather the support of both sides, in terms of achieving industrial peace. With regard to the Jewish public, Yanai tried, at least in the numismatic field, not to arouse unnecessary resentment, and in any case the Greek coins on his behalf revealed his ambitions and intentions.
A similar image emerges from seal impressions on stamps where his titles were immortalized: high priest and king as well as the symbol of the date palm.
His court manners were Hellenistic, his army was built in the Hellenistic format and even his competitive, individual character was one of the characteristics of Hellenization.
However, it is worth noting that in this Alexander did not change from his predecessors in the ruling family, but the dimensions of Hellenization in his time, at his initiative, were more numerous and higher.
Did Matthew pray to this boy at the time?!?
Yanai led a series of careful military operations, the goals of which were to achieve territorial continuity for the Kingdom of Judah, to take control of key points in the Land of Israel such as port cities and trade routes, to strengthen the economy of Judah, to disperse the Jewish population and move it from densely populated places to sparsely inhabited places, to exterminate the idols, and to protracted war in all manifestations Foreign work within the borders of the Land of Israel and the reduction of the desire for freedom of the Greek polis cities in the face of the increasing centralized rule.
These objectives were in part in line with the will and legacy of Mattathias - the father of the Maccabean-Hasmonean uprising - and especially the extermination of idols, a protracted war against the manifestations of paganism and damage to the sovereignty of the Hellenistic polis cities, but these were accompanied by moves that provoked criticism such as: many and oppressive costs, the recruitment of many soldiers - Tens of thousands according to Josephus, although these are greatly exaggerated numbers, Sacrificing many soldiers on the altar of Yanai's conquest targets, destroying cities such as Gaza, killing six thousand Jews on the charge of insurrection against him, and finally the number of those slaughtered reached fifty thousand, he captured eight hundred rebels, ordered them to be hanged on the trees and not only that, but he ordered the slaughter of her sons and their wives and That's how the people named him "Tharkida" meaning the son of Tarkia, who was considered the breeder of a cruel people, He handed over many territories he conquered in Gilead and Moab to the Arabs.
There were times when Yanai's involvement could have caused heavy damage to Yehuda. Thus, for example, one of Yanai's first and most impressive operations was the conquest of the city of Acre (Ptolemais), which was an important port city, hostile to the Jews, which interfered with the Hasmonean rule in the Galilee. In their plight, the inhabitants of Acre in 102-103 BC, when Shinai threatened their safety, turned to Ptolemy Lathyrus, the son of the deposed Egyptian queen who ruled Cyprus. Yanai, for his part, summoned Cleopatra III, the queen of Egypt. She sent an army under the command of two Jewish generals, part of And Hananiah, the sons of his fourth son, from the family of the great priesthood, who at that time went down to Egypt, Precisely from the terror of the Hasmoneans.
Ptolemy Lathyrus retreated before the Egyptian armies, but a new danger was now hovering over the land - the annexation of Judah to Egypt. This danger was removed due to the loyalty of the pair of Jewish army ministers, who convinced the Egyptian queen and even pressured her to give up her intentions of annexation, Alexander was saved and with him she was saved All of Judah from being enslaved to Cleopatra. However, these moves by Yanai indicated an adventurous foreign policy, as we will see later.
Yosef ben Mattheyahoo testifies that Alexander's policies and actions were scornful in the eyes of the people, and as proof of this he cites an embarrassing episode as follows: While Yanai was standing at the altar to offer a sacrifice, he was struck by the public with a volley of etrogis, until a rumor spread about him that his mother, the wife of Yohanan Hyrcanus, was a prisoner , and from that he is not fit to be a king and certainly not a high priest.
The public declared a rebellion against him and in response the king ordered the massacre of the rebels.
Why then did a rebellion break out against Yanai?
First - the soul of the people was strained/tired from the many wars waged by the Hasmonean kings and the greatest of all was Alexander Yanai. The wars imposed a heavy burden on the people. These were difficult, prolonged wars. They exacted many sacrifices in their lives, as well as the spoils and honor were concentrated in the hands of a few - the noble officers.
Second - the people's representatives were furious that Yanai does not share with them in important decisions - political, as well as military. This matter was of course due to a maximum reduction of the power of the People's Assembly and its constituencies. These also did not see any need for wars of conquest and sought to devote themselves to a life of work and Torah study.
Thirdly - the great majority of the people, it seems, did not take kindly to the fact that in the hands of the same king, who often shed so much blood, is also given the crown of the great priesthood.
Fourthly - a part of the people, not the minority, watched with rage as the goals for which Matthias and his sons set out to rebel were crashing and disintegrating before his eyes, and on the other hand, beginning with Simeon and continuing in John, but especially with Yanai, the Greekization deepened in Judah, and not only that, but it penetrated well into the royal house Hasmonean
For these reasons the people decided to rebel. And the reaction of King Yanai - a massacre of the rebels.
The bloodbath took place in the attack of the mercenary army of the king, whose origin was from Pisidia and Cilicia in Asia Minor. This mercenary army was established at the initiative of King Yochanan Hyrcanus. The balance of the murdered reached six thousand people. And not only that, Yanai made sure to erect a wooden fence around the altar and the temple up to the grate, in a place where only priests are allowed to enter, and thus - according to the words of Yosef ben Matthew - blocked the entrance to it from the crowd. In this act, he only increased the tension between him and the public, whose soul was beginning to grow out of the king's behavior. A short time later, when Yanai returned with his forces in a problematic confrontation with the desert tribes in the Golan region, the public protested against his actions and the miracle of the uprising was lifted again. In response, the king's army dealt a heavy blow to the public, and again this time with the help of the aforementioned mercenary corps and during six years of resistance (87-93 BC), the people paid with fifty thousand sacrifices. Even if the numbers are greatly exaggerated, they indicate Yanai's bloodthirsty cruelty.
In most of their desperation, the people expressed their deep anger against Yanai and wished nothing less and nothing more than the death of the king. However, the public was not satisfied with that and allied with the Syrian-Seleucid king Demetrius III, son of Antiochus VIII in order to put an end to Yanai's tropical moves. The Syrian leader is willing to accept this initiative because he will be able to increase the territories of his kingdom. In the battle between the two sides, when Jewish warriors were serving in Demetrius' camp, perhaps in return for the service of Greeks - Pisidians and Cilicians - in Yanai's army, Yanai fought against Demetrius near Nablus and fled as long as he could towards the mountains.
About six thousand Jewish warriors who served in Demetrius' army finally went over to Yanai's side only because they felt sorry for him and his fate. The others chose to fight him, but this time Yanai had the upper hand and he managed to push them into the city of Beit-Homa.
After the city was conquered by him, he led the fighting Jews to Jerusalem "and did the cruelest thing of all - he sat down with his concubines (!!!) in a place visible to all and ordered to hang about eight hundred of them (of the fighting Jews) and slaughtered their sons and wives before their eyes, (and so) He took revenge (on them) for the wrongs done to him" (Yosef ben Matatiyo, The Antiquities of the Jews 381, 380-XNUMX).
That is, Alexander Yanai and his concubines watched that horrible show, as they turned away from the feast and reveled in the sight of the horror they were witnessing.
And more than that, about eight thousand of our opponents fled outside the borders of his kingdom in order to be saved from the horror of the Bacchanal punishment that was expected of them.
Did Grandfather Matthiahu pray for this "boy" in Blain and executioner at the time?!
During Yanai's conquests, which were many, it took over a long chain of cities such as Migdal Sharshon (later Caesarea), Apollonia, Jaffa, Yavneh, Ashdod, Gaza and more. Yanai destroyed it to the core, and his words - "because its inhabitants did not promise to convert their customs to the customs of the ancestors of the Jews" (Ancestry of the Jews 397, XNUMX). In other words, he also behaved in the same way towards the other cities, as implied by the language of the words, and thus his act exceeded that of his predecessors - Yohanan Hyrcanus and Yehuda Aristobulus. It is implied from this that Yanai chose to expand the territories of his kingdom and fortify them over time by forcing Judaism on the local Hellenistic and other inhabitants.
Did grandfather Matthiahu pray for such a "boy" at the time?!
Sage literature almost never referred to the Maccabees and Hasmoneans and for its reasons it - probably in order not to arouse in its time - in the period after the destruction of the Second Temple - a desire to rebel against the Romans, especially among the younger generation, however in view of the actions and moves of Alexander Yanai, Sage literature certainly had a good reason sting him and deal with him.
First - although Yanai is crowned as a high priest on his coins, the Sage literature disbelieves in this, and calls him in all the references by the name "Yenai the King", unlike for example Yochanan Hyrcanus who receives the confirmation of his title from the Sage literature.
In Mishnat Yavmot 6:4 it is told about Yehoshua ben Gamla who was appointed high priest by King Yanai perhaps to please the Pharisee camp and perhaps following the criticism leveled at Yanai's priesthood on behalf of the public. In any case, the public criticism of Yanai was well known.
And as evidenced in the tractate Kiddoshin in the Babylonian Talmud (Su p. 1), perhaps in connection with his many conquests as it appears in the Talmudic text, or because of his standing by the altar in the Sukkot when the people responded by chanting at him, one of the elders of the Sanhedrin by the name of Yehuda ben Gabira addressed him in this language - "Yanai the king, Give you a royal crown, put a priestly crown on Aaron's seed!"
Was it or wasn't it? It is impossible to know, but it is clear that such a statement resulted from a great deal of tension that arose between King Yanai and the public and between the King and the Sanhedrin. In the above statement there is a sense of harsh criticism towards Yanai, either it was said at the time or later.
Second - in the Sanhedrin tractate of the Babylonian Talmud (19 p. 1) it is told about Yanai's slave who killed a soul, and therefore the slave was required to stand trial by the Sanhedrin. Yanai handed him over to the Sanhedrin, but it was at the behest of the greatest of her sages and friends, Shimon ben Asat, who was probably the brother of Yanai's wife, that the king was required to give an account, and perhaps even stand trial by the Sanhedrin as responsible for the slave's actions. It should be noted that the demand of Ben Tshet went beyond the Pharisaic worldview, which he was among its prominent members and was closer to the Sadducean ideology, but here there was hidden under the surface a speculary for the power struggle between the monarchy and the Sanhedrin.
The king appeared before the Sanhedrin, but the members of the household broke down and asked to surrender in view of the appearance of the king, and probably with his entourage. Ben Tsheat reprimanded them and reminded them and the king that no man is above the law and society and even if he sits on the throne, while he, Ben Tsheat, harnesses the exclusion of God and His holiness as a shield over the court to strengthen the truth of his claims.
It is true that the text is somewhat problematic since it may be of late origin, when Herod, the governor of Galilee, was summoned to the Sanhedrin on charges of murder during the time of Yochanan Hyrcanus II, son of Alexander Yanai, but it does not matter because its inclusion in the Talmudic text, accompanied by additional evidence, shows what was the attitude that formed towards Yanai Hasmonean
Thirdly - there is evidence in the literature of sages about Yanai's harsh and blatant attitude towards the members of the Sanhedrin, including the killing of members of the Sanhedrin on his orders, which led to a panicked reaction such as the escape of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Farahia to Alexandria and the escape of Shimon ben Tsheh who found refuge with his sister (lest King Shlomzion's wife Alexandra?) And so does the fate of Yehuda ben Tabai.
Fourthly - evidence in the literature of the Sages provides details about the landed wealth of King Yanai, including the thousands of towns the king lived in, each of which had hundreds of thousands of settlers as many as came out of Egypt. , which does not appear in the context of any of his predecessors. These testimonies that add to the criticism of the king require a negative and not a positive attitude.
Fifth - unlike his predecessors, due to his adventurous, somewhat gambling nature, Yanai took a new line in his foreign policy. He did not renew the bilateral, bilateral alliance with Rome, fought the Seleucid kingdom and strengthened alliances with the cities of Polis that opposed Rome and especially with Egypt. It was a line of mistaken geopolitical consideration of relying on weakened forces and out of personal megalomania, that he was able to stop the front of the advance of the Roman Empire in the East.
A somewhat innovative aspect of his foreign policy, as there are no fingerprints in Josephus, but it is hinted at in an interesting way in the Sage literature. One tradition in the Jerusalem Talmud tells of a Ramat-Derg delegation that came to Linai from Persia, which is Parthia, the sworn enemy of Rome. The meeting The dramatic did not give rise to some kind of united front eruption against Rome, but it certainly provoked quite a bit in Rome This meeting is reminiscent of the ancient historical meeting between the representatives of cities and kingdoms in the East and Hezekiah, the king of Judah, so it seems, before he went to the rebellion against the Assyrians To come and perform the "mitzvah" of visiting the sick under the Assyrian radar. The greatest of the visitors, or the one who sent messengers on his behalf, was the king of Babylon, their adversary The Assyrians swear that the question of Hezekiah's joining the anti-Assyrian rebellion this connection was very significant.
Related or not? The very megalomania of Yanai and the anti-Roman foreign policy he pursued, including the pro-Parthian (former Babylonian) moves on his behalf, create an interesting connection between the biblical event and Yanai's political moves.
There should certainly not be a direct connection between Yanai's foreign policy and Rome's expected takeover of Judah (63-67 BC. But the lack of renewal of the alliance with Rome (one that knows very well how to reward its supporters), had weight, whether light or heavy to see Binai, Perhaps not indirectly guilty of Rome's takeover of Judea, as an integral part of the transformation of Hellenistic Syria into a Roman province, but partially guilty of the status The plight of Judah imposed on her by the Romans, because from the point of view of the Romans, breaking a contract is equated to persona non grata (undesirable personality in diplomatic terms).
And perhaps it is not for nothing that a tradition appears in the Jerusalem Talmud that elevates to a miracle the fact (in its opinion) that Janai's house was destroyed and a pagan temple to Markulis was built under it. Lest it be considered a vindictive wishful thinking because he kicked all the conventions that characterized grandfather Matityahu.
Josephus, for his part, testifies that Yanai became addicted to a drop of bitter until he suffered from chronic drunkenness. Her days lasted about three years, during which the king suffered from quadrilateral fever (malaria that comes in shock waves once every four days). His poor physical condition, which led to great exhaustion, did not prevent the king from continuing to conduct war campaigns, and in one of them, while he was laying siege to the city of Regev, which is in the borders of Gerash (Grasa), which is on the other side of the Jordan, he died.
Yanai Ipoa ended his life at the age of 51 after 27 years of a busy and tiring reign.
