When the Greeks defiled the oil in the Temple, they could have just spilled it on the ground. Yet they didn’t. They left the contaminated oil in jars so that it could be used. Why? One answer is that they wanted to introduce alien elements, to defile the Menorah which represented unity and holiness. They expected arguments to break out between those who felt that the defiled oil “could be used in an emergency” versus those who only wanted to use pure oil. But the Greeks did not anticipate the achdus of am Yisroel (unity of Yisroel) and the ahavas Yisroel (love of a fellow Jew) that everyone displayed. The Jews were of one mind and one heart—they were determined to find and use pure oil for the menorah. And they succeeded.
(Based on a Sicha given on P. Mikeitz, 5744)
