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 גבורים ביד חלשים רבים 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 ורשעים ביד צדיקים, 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.
A Yid from Eretz Yisrael traveled to Australia some sixty years ago. He didn't know where there was a beis medresh, and he couldn't ask anyone because he didn't know the language. Shabbos was approaching, and he needed a place to be.
He came up with an idea. He went to a fish store on Friday. He figured that if he saw someone buying a large fish, he might be a Yid.
The plan worked. He noticed someone buying a large carp and asked him whether he was a Yid. The man replied that he was and invited him to be with him on Shabbos. "It isn't every day that I have the opportunity to perform hachnasas orchim."
They spent a pleasant Shabbos together, singing zemiros and speaking divrei Torah.
On Motzei Shabbos, after thanking his host, he said, "From the looks of your beautiful house, I understand that Hashem blessed you with wealth. But there is something I was wondering about."
"Go ahead and ask," the host said.
The guest said, "Why do you keep a broken olive oil bottle in your dining room China closet?"
The man replied, "That oil bottle is very precious to me. It carries the story of my life.
"My father was niftar when I was young. As the oldest child, I was responsible for supporting my widowed mother and my younger siblings. Kind people had rachmanus on me and helped me get into business. Baruch Hashem, I had immediate success. There was plenty of money in the house. However, together with my financial success came my spiritual decline. The first thing to go was my yarmulke. Within a short time, I was totally secular.
"One afternoon, I saw a young Jewish child sitting on the curb, crying. It is always painful for me to see a child crying, probably because I was orphaned as a child, so I asked the child whether he wanted to tell me what had happened. The child said, 'Chanukah is approaching, and my father sent me to buy olive oil. He warned me to be careful because we are poor, and he would be upset if the bottle broke. I tried to be careful, but a cat ran right up to me. Startled, I fell, and the bottle broke.' The young boy showed me the broken bottle lying in the gutter. He said, 'How can I go to my father without the Chanukah oil?'
"I gave the child some money and told him to buy two bottles of olive oil: one for me and one for his father.
"When the child said, 'How can I go to my father without the Chanukah oil?' I remembered how my father lit Chanukah lecht each year. I thought to myself, 'The day will eventually come when I will go up to heaven, and I will meet with my father again. I asked myself, 'How can I meet with my father without Chanukah lecht?' I took the broken bottle shards from the gutter because something told me this was a turning point in my life.
"That year, I lit the Chanukah lecht. Soon afterward, I was keeping Shabbos. Then came tefillin. Now, baruch Hashem, I have a beautiful family, all following the Torah's ways. It all began with the broken olive oil bottle. Now you understand why I saved it all these years!"