In reflecting over the concepts of Hanukkah there seem, at first glance, to be many contradictory and conflicting messages.

In the blessing related to Hanukkah we acknowledge, thank and praise G-d for the miracles, relief and salvation, etc. which G-d did for us when the Greeks attempted to cause us to forget G-d’s Torah and to transgress G-d’s will.

It then enumerates, contrasts and compares the *negative* attributes of the Greeks with the *positive* attributes of the Jewish people.

This is the general summary of the commemoration of Hanukkah.

But in contrast to this, we find only a few centuries later that the Greeks, Greek wisdom (consider Rambam’s Moreh Nevuchim) and language are accorded places of special honor by none other than Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel like is taught in Megilla 9b and Sotah 49b. That only a Sefer Torah written in Koine Greek is considered holy and valid from all the other languages of the nations. And of the 1000 students in the Yeshiva of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel’s father, 500 studied the wisdom of the Torah and 500 studied Greek wisdom! It would seem that all the lessons from the Hellenists and Maccabees were forgotten.

And yet when summarizing the true message of Hanukkah, Torah says (see Bereshit Rabbah 2:5 and 44:20) that the Greeks demanded of the Jews that they write on the horn of an ox that they have no portion in the G-d of Israel!

How does this act represent and encompass the essence of the message of Hanukkah and how is this message to be understood in the apparently contradictory behavior of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel only a few centuries later?