The pesukim in the beginning of Bereishis talk about tohu, vohu, choshech, tehom and then the ruach Elokim hovers over the water until yehi or. Chazal say that these also represent the development of history. Chazal identified Golus Yovon as choshech – it was a nation that ruled the world and brought darkness to the world. Greek thought introduced denial of HaShem as part of their national culture. Tehom is Rome – a seemingly endless golus. The culture of Rome incorporated Greece and then transformed into Christianity. This dominates the world until today.

But Chazal said that the ruach Elokim – the spirit of Moshiach is hovering over the waters of Torah and then Moshiach arrives and Yehi Or – there is light.

The Heicholos of Rebbi Yishmoel tells an aditional story. The second Beis Hamikdosh had many aspects that were missing from it – nevuoh, ruach hakodesh, urim vetumim, the aron hakodesh, etc. The people who were to build the second Beis Hamikdosh were worried that people wouldn’t feel the shechinoh in the same way as they felt with the first one and that they would not connect to Hashem on the same level as before. They asked Hashem to first reveal to them the secrets of Torah Sheba’al peh before they would build the second Bayis. Instead of the hashroas haschechinoh through the urim vetumim and nevuoh, we will get hashro’as haschechinoh through limud HaTorah. Hashem consented and revealed to them the secrets of Torah sheba’al peh. It was only then that they built the second Bais Hamikdosh. The period of Bayis Sheni saw a rapid development of Torah Sheba’al peh.

The midrash in Bereishis talks about a nevuoh of Doniel describing an ayil haminageiach --a wild ram that nothing could stand in its way.

Chazal tell us that at the beginning of Bayis Sheni, Anshei Knasses Hagedolah were apprehensive. They saw how Avodo Zoro led to the destruction of the first Beis Hamikdosh and realized it was a continuing threat to the second one. They davened to Hashem to have the yetzer harah of Avodo Zoro delivered into their hands allow them to slaughter it for good. The Gemara in Erchin describes this in detail.

Yovon is choshech. For the first time, Klal Yisroel were confronted with a challenge not only to their sovereignty or to their way of life, but to their whole hashkofas haolam.

In reality, the wisdom of Greeks was meant to serve a higher purpose. With the yetzer of avodo zoro removed, and an explosion of Torah Sheba’al Peh underway, the time was ripe to allow the ideas of the Torah to dominate the world and bring Moshiach. But instead of Torah rushing to directly fill the imminent vacuum, Hashem chose Alexander the Great—one of the students of Aristotle-- to sweep the ancient world and bring about a collapse of all the societies worshipping Avodo Zoro. Greek philosophy was designed and used by Hashem to undermine the prevalent belief in Avodo zoro in the ancient world and to pave the way for Torah to bring the Moshiach. If you look today and see where Islam’s influence is diminished and where the old Avodo Zoro is still practiced, you will find that it is the region in India where Alexander suddenly died and the Greek Empire was halted.

Aexander he Great is the ayil menagayach described in Sefer Daniel.

The plan was for the Torah to supersede Greek philosophy after Greek philosophy served its purpose to undermine the belief in avodoh Zoro. At that point, with their emunoh in Hashem and the tremendous amount of limmud Torah that was supposed to take place during Bayis Shemi, Klal Yisroel was supposed to stand out, get noticed, and have the truth of the Torah be adopted by the world. This would usher in the Utopian Age and Moshiach would come.

But what happened? As much as Hashem plans, He leaves it to our free will to fulfill those plans and make sure it happens. Instead of having Greek wisdom used as a tool to destroy avodah zoroh and pave the way for the truth of the Torah to shine forth through the darkness, Klal Yisroel themselves were greatly taken in by Greek culture and Greek philosophy. It infiltrated Eretz Yisroel and infiltrated Klal Yisroel. It weakened our commitment to Torah and we didn’t have the strength of kedushoh and taharoh to bring Torah to the world.

Even though Hashem revealed the secrets of Torah Sheba’al peh to Klal Yisroel, they were so overwhelmed by Greek thought that they were no longer up to the task. Only a small segment of Klal Yisroel remained loyal and was able to overcome the Greek Empire with the koach of the Torah.

Rav Yehudoh Halevy has a beautiful line in his poem: Don’t get seduced by Greek wisdom. It is all flowers with no fruit. It is pleasant and nice-looking, but it can’t nourish you. This is Greek wisdom—it just looks nice from the outside and seduces people into trading it for substance.

The Rambam in the end of Hilchos Melachim says Hashem allowed Christianity and Islam to spread across the world to bring the ideas of the Torah to dominate the world—again, to prepare the way for Moshiach.

Channuka talks about an incredible miracle that happened through a small group of lomday Torah who saw through the façade of Greek wisdom which was in reality choshech. You can just imagine how the misyavnim became so enamored with the high-sounding notions of Greek ideas and philosophy - their culture, their literature, their theater and Olympics. Such an advanced, civilized nation deserves to dominate the world. But when the Rambam wants to isolate the exact agenda of the Greeks in Hilchos Channukah, despite his intimate familiarity with Greek philosophy, he says they were primarily after money and women. Their wisdom was just an excuse for pursuing their taivos.

There were only a small group of people who saw through the sham of Greek civilization and they upheld the concept of the truth and purity of Torah. But the majority of Klal Yisroel were overwhelmed by Greek culture.

We mentioned a few weeks ago that the Greeks managed to put up an idol in the Heichal of the Beis Hamikdosh. How was this possible? The Nefesh Hachayim writes, the Jewish mind is parallel to Kodesh haKodoshim. Now, with the Jewish mind filled with Greek ideas, the erecting of an idol in the Beis Hamikdosh simply reflected the fact that there was a Greek idol in the hearts and minds of Klal Yisroel at the time.

In Al Hanisim we say that only a small handful of weak, pure and righteous lomday Torah refused to be impressed and were able to hold the line against the onslaught of Greek ideas.

The gemara in Shabbos only mentions the nes of the pach shemen, while the Al Hanisim only mentions the military victory. The neiros are at most alluded to at the end. It seems to be a contradiction to the gemara.

The Meshech Chochmoh explains the midrash that says that when the Benei Yisroel were escorting Yaakov Ovinu back to the Me’oras hamachpeloh, Yosef made a detour to visit the pit that he was thrown in and made a brocho over the miracle of his salvation. But the brothers only saw him go back to that pit and assumed that he was rehashing the injustice perpetrated against him and would seek revenge. They didn’t understand Yosef’s true intentions.

Why did Yosef go back to that pit? There was only one event in the whole chain of events that brought Yosef to power which was outside the laws of nature. This was being thrown into the pit and not being killed by the poisonous animals contained in it. This miracle allowed him to make a brocho and through that, he was able to articulate all the hakoras hatov he had for all the other events that seemed natural.

So too, the victory of the Chashmonaim was seemingly natural, but there was only one miracle that revealed that Hashem was behind everything. The menorah was a symbol of the wisdom of Torah which is kodosh and tahor that triumphed over the Greeks. A miracle was done to show that this was the true achievement of the military victory.

Hashem gives Klal Yisroel opportunities. Sometimes we take them and use them to their fullest, and sometimes we pass them by.

Hashem gave Klal Yisroel an opportunities at the beginning of Bayis Sheni to use the secrets of Torah Sheba’al peh to bring the truth of the Torah to transform the world. But they got sidetracked along the way and corrupted their Torah with Greek wisdom. Because of that, the Moshiach was delayed for 2,000 years.

Hashem gives us the opportunity for tremendous limud HaTorah. We are supposed to shine pure Torah to the world. But because we are influenced by foreign ideas and philosophies, our Torah gets contaminated and corrupted. It is no longer fit to spread the truth of Torah to the world.

In different periods of history, Hashem gave opportunities to various generations to learn and achieve deep levels of the understanding of Torah in kedushoh and taharoh that we benefit from till this day. In times of rishonim, the Torah blossomed and we live from their Torah today.

In our time, Hashem has given us the opportunity to learn Torah in an atmosphere of luxury and freedom that is unparalleled in history. And we have a responsibility to use that opportunity to build ourselves with Torah with kedushoh and taharoh so that it can shine forth to the world and communicate to the world the beauty of the Torah and the truth of the Torah, to influence the world.

We have a tremendous responsibility to use the opportunities we’ve been given to build ourselves up with Torah - avahas haTorah and havonas HaTorah-- to shine forth the truth of Torah to transform the world.

Chazal said that choshech and tehom are dominating the world today, but the ruach of Moshiach is hovering over the water which is Torah.

The world is at the brink of a radical transformation and it is our responsibility to see to it that another opportunity isn’t squandered like it was 2,000 years ago. Only through the zechus of the Torah learned and absorbed in its purest form will allow it to shine forth and bring Moshiach speedily in our days.