Shimon was very influential in halachic matters as well. He emphasized several rules of judicial procedure, including ensuring that all capital cases be tried based solely on testimony offered by at least two witnesses, to the exclusion of circumstantial evidence, no matter how compelling. He also taught that a judge must “examine witnesses thoroughly” (Avos 1:9), a reflection of the need to counteract the Sadducees’ efforts to pervert Torah law.
He also passed legislation that greatly enhanced a woman’s ability to collect her marriage settlement (kesubah) in the event of divorce or her husband’s passing. In so doing, Shimon made divorce more difficult.
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The Tzadukkim observed the growing political strength of the Perushim with great alarm. At roughly the midpoint of his reign (95 BCE) they implored Yannai to act once more against their adversaries, with the goal of bringing about an open, irreparable conflict between the two sides. Yannai agreed, but only if his attacks on the people could appear as retaliation against an unruly mob rather than as an initial strike. This would allow him to act with ruthless abandon and completely suppress the Perushim and their supporters.
Throughout the early years of his reign, Yannai had resisted taking any actions that the people would deem overly provocative. He was engaged in multiple struggles with Ptolemy Lathyrus and other adversaries and could ill-afford internal dissension. Now victorious and in complete control of the land, Yannai arrogantly moved forward with his plan.
To that end he chose to engage in an inflammatory act. One of the many disagreements in practice between the Perushim and the Tzadukkim centered on the ritual known as nisuch hamayim, which involved pouring water on the mizbeach during Sukkos. The Perushim performed it while the Tzadukkim did not. So using the Beis HaMikdash as his stage and Sukkos as his opportunity, Yannai took the water and poured it on his feet.
His actions had their desired effect. The people were outraged. Spontaneously reacting to this sacrilege, they began to pelt Yannai with their esrogim, nearly stoning him to death. The king, in turn, unleashed a prepared mercenary force against them, killing more than six thousand Jews.
For the next five years the strain between the two sides was palpable yet subdued. That would change in 90 BCE when Yannai set out on another military campaign into Transjordan. After experiencing initial successes over the Moabites and Gileadites, Yannai was repelled in a battle against the king of the Nabateans. Caught in an ambush, Yannai “was thrown down into a deep valley…and barely escaped with his life” (Josephus, Antiquities 13:375). Yannai and his forces fled back to Jerusalem.
The news of Yannai’s setback struck a responsive chord among the Perushim. Sensing an opportunity to rid themselves of their oppressive ruler, they rose up in open rebellion against him.
The civil war that followed would last for six painful and torturous years. All told, in excess of fifty thousand Jews died. As the war progressed, Yannai and his supporters seized the upper hand. In desperation, certain Perushim struck a deal with Demetrius III of Syria, inviting him to invade Judah. Many Jews duly joined the Syrian forces. The year was 88 BCE.
Demetrius, whose army was nearly double in size compared to that of Yannai, soundly defeated his adversary in battle near Shechem. Yannai and his remaining forces fled. But out of concern for their fellow Jews, six thousand Jewish fighters who had been serving under Demetrius now switched sides, forcing Demetrius to leave the battlefield and return to Syria.
The Perushim hoped Yannai would respond to this display of good will with a new attitude of his own. If their rebellion had not impressed upon him the need to rule with justness and kindness, perhaps this gesture would. But Yannai refused to come to terms with his people. Frustrated by years of resistance and desirous of revenge, Yannai responded to their benevolence with unspeakable cruelty, “for which he bore the name of barbarian among the Jews” (Ibid, 13:383).
