Yavan and Yonah, יון ויונה

I heard this short Divrei Torah which I find fascinating and thought I'd pass it along.  The source is from Rabbi Laris of Eretz Yisrael.

The Greeks are called Yavan, spelled in Hebrew יון.  The message of this name is that when a Jew starts to sin, he is like the י of Yavan, and then he sins some more, he is like the ו of Yavan, and if he continues to sin until he falls, he is like the ן of Yavan.  The three letters show the descent from י to ו to ן, each letter getting longer and longer to the point of no return.  The message of Chanukah is to not stumble like a Hellenist (Greek) Jew.

However, if the Jew catches himself before he sins any further, by attaching himself to Hashem, let's say he's at the יו stage, and he attaches himself to Hashem by doing teshuva, then the ן of Yavan becomes a regular נ, and by attaching to Hashem, he adds the letter ה to his name, thus becoming a יונה, or YONAH.  In English, Yonah spells DOVE, the symbol of the Jewish people.  Isn't that nice?