The story of Hannukah has one of the great villains of ancient times: Antiochus Epiphanes. Unlike Alexander the Great who came before him, Antiochus used Hellenism as an “agent of cultural totalitarianism”.
Antiochus, as so many antagonists in stories do, wanted power. Specifically, he wanted to conquer Egypt. His strategy for conquering Egypt began at home by demanding complete subservience to him and Greek practice. By doing this he could funnel funds from the Temple into funding his war on Egypt.
In reading any good story it is often easy to determine who the hero is and who the villain is supposed to be. However, real life is hardly as easy. In the story of Hannukah, Antiochus is clearly cast as the villain. He contains in him so many of the classic hallmarks of truly evil characters. Antiochus is selfish, egotistical (his chosen surname Epiphanes literally means “God Manifest”), power hungry, controlling and easily threatened.
In real life, however, logically separating what makes a good leader from what makes a bad one is much harder. Fortunately our tradition has given us a barometer by which to distinguish good leaders from bad ones. According to Derech Eretz Rabbah, a minor tractate of the Talmud a good leader:
- Suffer insults but does not insult, who hear themselves reviled and do not answer back- 2:13
- confess their sins in earnestness- 2:18
- pursues righteousness… seeks peace for their people, [and] grieves with the community and stands by them in the hour of their distress- 2:24
- has a humble opinion of themselves… are low in their own estimation [and] subdue their [evil] inclination and… are humble of spirit- 2:14
- loves their fellow-human- 2:17
This is not to say that a good leader always possesses all of these qualities at all times. After all, people are human and do have failings, and no one is perfect. Rather it should teach us to ask the question, “does our leader aspire to these things, if not actually realize them?” In evaluating our leaders as good we do need to be careful not to set ourselves up for disappointment and our leaders up for failure.
On the other hand, while a good leader has to aspire to many things, the markings of a poor leader are few and simple. Again, from the same book of the Talmud, Derech Eretz Rabah, a bad leader is one who:
- smites in secret, openly blasphemes, treats the public with contempt and are causers of strife- 2:4
- flatterers, liars and workers of iniquity- 2:7
To judge a poor leader, we should use these standards as an objective ruler against which to judge their actions and qualifications to lead.
Antiochus was not a bad leader because the story needed a villain, he was a bad leader because of the practices he engaged in. Knowing evil intuitively can be a beginning, however, it cannot be the end. It is necessary to have outside standards, objective criteria to judge our own leaders by in order to know not just whether you should follow someone but why you should follow them as well.
Using judgement of good from bad in Judaism forces us to take our thoughts on a subject out of the realm of feelings and into the realm of logic. When we use feelings to make decisions we often run into problems and unforeseen consequences. When we use objective criteria to judge a person often progress can be made.
There are five rules of diplomacy and negotiation:
- 1. Separate People From the Problem
- 2. Focus on Interests, Not Positions
- 3. Invent Options for Mutual Gain
- 4. Use Objective Criteria
- 5. Know Your BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement)
These rules of diplomacy coupled with our tradition’s teachings about good versus bad leadership will serve us very well as a society if we can internalize them. Antiochus was a villain. Perhaps though, what made him truly a villain was his inability to self-reflect on his own actions and unwillingness to grow and change. Hopefully, these criteria we have discussed today will make us more thoughtful about ourselves and other’s actions so we can create a world where, even when we disagree, we are all modeling good leadership.
