Yochanan Hyrcanus יוחנן הורקנוס

He survived Dok because he did not go to that feast, and he ruled for thirty-one years. Under him Judea grew: Shechem and Mount Gerizim, Transjordan and Idumea were taken; the Idumeans he converted by force—a decision out of which, two generations later, came Herod.

The Talmud remembers him differently from the Greek historians. The Mishnah lists his enactments: he abolished the declaration over tithes and removed the "wakers" and the "strikers" from the Temple order. Sotah tells how he heard a voice in the Holy of Holies: "The young men who went to make war on Antioch have conquered"—and the hour matched the hour of the victory. And Berakhot says something bitter: "Yochanan served as High Priest for eighty years, and in the end he became a Sadducee."

The break with the Pharisees is the most important thing that happened in his day: from then on two readings of the Torah stand against each other, and power chooses the Sadducees. Who exactly broke with the sages the sources tell differently. The Talmud sets the story of Elazar ben Poirah's slander in the days of "King Yannai", while Josephus places it under Hyrcanus. We give both readings and do not choose for the reader.