Major splits in the Jewish religion have happened many times, but often the only reference we have is the Torah itself and it is by no means an unbiased source. Nor does it tend to record anything but the religous aspects of the disputes, even though many of them obviously had geographic, poltical or other significant aspects.

Evidence suggests that the Christian religion itself was split off because of such a dispute. The movement that spawned the Christian religion became a major movement in Isreal because the population was angry with the way the leaders and high priests where selling out to the Romans.

Once again this was a religious / poltical dispute where a significant portion of the population turned away from the previously accepted central authority.

Jay