The Adjacent Possible
We often perceive Chanukah as a celebration of the triumph of maintaining what is precious and valued in the face of potential overwhelming, annihilating change. The Macabbees fought the Greeks and the Hellenists those Jews who were over-eager to abandon their own traditions and adopt new ones and they triumphed, restoring the Temple to what it was, saving Jewish values and culture.
Perhaps, though, we are actually celebrating the opposite of this traditional perspective. Perhaps Chanukah is a commemoration of the fact that we were flexible, malleable, and, yes, impressionable enough, to change, to grow, and, therefore, to survive.