The head of all Jewry, the Rosh Yeshiva HaRav Shteinman, whose Chanukah message is his legacy, explained the idea behind the Greek demand that "you write upon the ox' horn that `we have no portion in the G-d of Israel.'"
Jewish livelihood in the past was grounded in agriculture, and the ox was the animal that plowed the fields, representing the bread which constituted their staff of life. The Greeks and Hellenists who were determined to effect changes in the midst of the Jewish people demanded that Jews declare that Hashem had no part in their source of livelihood (ch'v), rather it was the strength of the ox which provided their daily bread. Furthermore, whoever acquired an academic degree could amply provide for his family and `progress' in life. Hashem, they claimed, was out of the picture. Livelihood lies in your hands, your efforts, your professional training. Leave your study shtender and go out to work; success lies only in your own power. Onward with agents of change like the so-called chareidi websites - the present day Hellenists.
Our Torah leaders rallied to call on the threshold of Chanukah, in the yeshivos themselves, in the expanded Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah and in an emergency meeting which took place in the home of the Rosh Yeshiva to guard the purity of the cruse of oil and not allow evil plotters to contaminate the oils. Thousands of bells toll in alarm, "What can you gain from a larger income to enable you to devote yourselves to Torah study and establish a Torah home — if the woman of the house does not retain the purity of the wife of an avreich?" This was the cry of HaRav David Cohen at this emergency meeting.
"There is a new concept of `avreichit', the wife of an avreich, who can maintain a Torah home. But if the wife belongs to the world at large, your home will not be one of Torah. So what will you have gained?"
The Greeks surrounded me, in those days at this season, and breached the walls of My towers. Like Matisyohu in his time, the hue and cry reverberates from the mouths of gedolei Torah: Mi laShem elai? This is the time for us to light the candles in our holy courts. And from the holy remnant, may a miracle take place for the shoshanim. For eight days did the elders establish joy and praise!
