“Greeks have gathered around me, then in the days of the Hasmoneans.”
The Greeks are the Klipa [shell/peel] opposite from the Kedusha [holiness]. Kedusha is the quality of faith above reason, and the Greeks go explicitly within reason. The Greeks come specifically in the days of the Hasmoneans, meaning right when one wants to walk on the path of Kedusha. Before this, there is no room for the Greeks because “God has made them one opposite the other.” This is the meaning of “Anyone who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than him” (Sukkah 52).
This is as it is written, “He who comes to purify is aided” (Shabbat 104a). Why is one not assisted from above before he comes? The answer is that before he comes to purify himself of his vessels of reception, although he believes that the Creator helps, as our sages said, “Man’s inclination overcomes him every day, and unless the Creator helps him, he cannot overcome it” (Kidushin 30b), and one must believe that this is so, but within reason, he sees that man does everything anyhow.
But one who comes to purify himself of vessels of reception sees that it is not within man’s power. Rather, there needs to be a miracle from above, and if this miracle does not happen, he is lost. He sees this within reason—that he needs assistance from above—and within reason, there is no way that he will emerge from the control of the will to receive.
It follows that when one wants to walk on the path of Kedusha [holiness], the Greeks come and ask as it is written, “Why should the nations say, ‘Where is their God?’” At that time, it is forbidden to answer within reason, but rather above reason, meaning that only the Creator, who is above our reason, for He created our reason, He can answer all the “Where?” questions that they ask.
We see that on Shabbat [Sabbath], in the Kedusha of Keter [part of a prayer], the ARI says there that in the word “Where?” shines the light of Shabbat, which is called Mochin de Haya, for precisely over the above reason over the Greeks, when we hear the “Where?” comes the answer of the light of Shabbat, which shines and cancels all the judgments, as it is written, “And the Judgments are removed from her.”
It follows that through Greece, meaning the Klipa [shell/peel] of Greece, who go according to reason, we descend into the abyss and it is impossible to rise, as it is written, “I have drowned in the abyss of Greece” (Psalms 69), and only from above is it possible to lift up.