The Greeks wanted to get rid of the Jews. They did not hate us, they just wanted to steal our spirituality, which would lead us to leave Hashem.
It's an untold part of the Chanuka story that at the time when the Greeks began to attack Judaism, the Beis Hamikadash was being neglected. Jews took their success for granted. Only then did the Greeks begin to attack our religion. We all know the stories about how Jews were moiser nefesh and used the dreidel games to conceal their Torah studies and practices, but many Jews did leave the Jewish lifestyle and were assimilating.
We all know that Hashem promised that the Jewish nation will never cease to exist. So what had to happen, WE HAD TO GET SLAPPED. We needed to be reminded that we are the holy Jewish nation, and we will not be defeated, even at our own hand. The Maccabees picked up on this and fought back with all their might. Their mission was successful, despite their being outnumbered. Even after this, we still needed a miracle to keep our spirituality going, we needed pure oil. And guess what was found after a long, tiring search - a jug of pure oil. And this oil - it lasted 8 days, way longer than it would have without the struggle!
Sorry for that long-winded overview, but so many lessons can be taken from this.
With all of our struggles, sometimes we have to realize that maybe we are lacking in faith in Hashem. This may lead us to veer off the path to recovery and to give up. We decide to "have some fun," and to take a break from fighting. We give in. So what we need at this moment is a SLAP of guilt to be put back on track. We must not be brought down by that slap, we have to use it as motivation to not only keep fighting but to fight like we never have before. We have to trick our subconscious and "play some dreidel." And even though the odds are stacked against us, especially when it seems like there is no hope, we keep fighting and get stronger. This is when Hashem steps in. We will beat the odds. But just because we won the battle, doesn't mean we won the war. We still have to strive for progress and look to better ourselves as people. We must grow from this experience. Once again Hashem will step in, and this will bring us even closer than we ever have been. This will stay with us forever because we worked for it, way longer than it would have without our struggle.
Happy Chanuka, your fellow Maccabee, Yosef10