Chanukah more than anything is the victory of the transmission of authentic Jewish learning and practice (in Hebrew, chinuch) over the Greek/Macedonian attempt to extinguish it.

But the story starts long before that era.

Noah hasd 3 sons, from whom the human population derives. Their names were Sheim, Cham and Yafet. Cham means heat and his primary trait was passion, sensory. Yafet means beauty and his focus was appreciation of physical beauty and the metaphysical, science behind the universe. Sheim means name. The commentators explain that Adam was given the power to name the creatures based on their essence. Sheim primary focus was towards the essence of the universe and he is titled in the Torah “kohein le’El Elyon “ the minister of the Omnipotent.

These three represent spheres of interaction with the universe. One can be overwhelmed by a flower from the aesthetic beauty, the smell, feel, sometimes taste and sound. On a deeper level one can appreciate that the beauty attracts bees for pollination, the chlorophyll is green to absorb sunlight for photosynthesis etc. at the deepest level on can ask what makes it thus and tie it in to the perfect design of the universe.

Olive in Hebrew is Zayit. When we break down the component letters we get zayin the root of which is zon meaning sustenance, this could allude to Cham’s sphere of reference. Yud spells yad meaning hand, the symbol of human interaction with the world, Yafet. Tav stands for Torah, the blueprint of the universe, domain of Sheim.

One could suggest that Cham would not like olives because the taste is bitter, no instant gratification. Yafet is big into olives for anointing, cooking, food dressing and light, all areas of physical and metaphysical covered.

The Jews (from Sheim- thus Semite) extract the very first (and only the first) purest drop of oil from the olives to fuel the menorah. The menorah itself (seven armed) was placed in the Temple in the Kodesh (Holy.) It burned every night, but could only be seen by Kohanim.

We see in the first day of creation Hashem said “let there be light and there was light.” Yet there were no luminaries (until day 4.) The Sages explain that the light of Day One was a light hidden for the righteous in the world to come. 

I once heard that Rembrandt had access to this hidden light.

It is this hidden light, the light that is most inherent in Torah when properly learned, that the menorah embodied and which the Greeks/ Macedonians (descendant of Yafet) tried so hard to extinguish with their decrees and which was miraculously saved and restored on the first Chanukah.