Chanukah: A Time for Teshuvah
חנוכה comes from the word חינוך, which means training, to train oneself, or to train children to act appropriately. The holiday is called חנוכה because, during these eight days, we teach ourselves to serve Hashem properly.
The Beis Aharon zt'l adds that since Chanukah is a time for teshuvah, it is recommended to say Tehillim on Chanukah because Tehillim helps a person in his path of teshuvah. The Beis Aharon writes, "A person must believe that by saying Tehillim, he can leave all his foolish ways and all his problems and overcome thoughts of yeush that the yetzer hara brings onto a person."
Al HaNissim discusses the miracles of the war. מסרת חלשים ביד גבורים ורבים ביד מעטים, "You delivered the mighty into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of few." After that, we say, וטמאים ביד טהורים וצדיקים ביד רשעים וזדים ביד עוסקי תורתך, "[You delivered] the tame'im into the hands of the tehorim, resha'im into the hands of tzaddikim, sinners into the hands of those who study Torah." Is this miraculous? We understand the first half of the phrase, the mighty and the many being delivered into the hands of the weak and few is certainly miraculous, but is it a miracle that those who are sinners will be given over into the hands of those who are righteous and who study the Torah?
The Berdichover Rav zy'a answers that the final words of this verse discuss the wave of teshuvah that happened in response to the miracles that occurred: טהורים ביד טמאים the impure people did teshuvah and became pure. צדיקים ביד רשעים, the resha'im changed their ways and became tzaddikim. ביד זדים עוסקי תורתיך sinners began to study Torah. There were many resha'im among the Jewish nation at this time called מתיונים, people who joined ranks with the Yevanim. When they witnessed the miraculous war that the weak and the few won against the mighty Greek army, they did teshuvah and became pure and righteous. They did teshuvah.
