## Ceremony and Celebration Family Edition, The Hagim, Hanukka, The Sixth Night, Fun Fact

###### Ceremony and Celebration Family Edition, The Hagim, Hanukka, The Sixth Night, Fun Fact 1
[Ceremony and Celebration Family Edition, The Hagim, Hanukka, The Sixth Night, Fun Fact 1](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Ceremony%20and%20Celebration%20Family%20Edition%2C%20The%20Hagim/s/Hanukka,_The%20Sixth%20Night,_Fun%20Fact/r/1)

**Ceremony & Celebration Family Edition, Maggid Books, 2023:**
There is a custom on Ḥanukka to play with special spinning tops called *dreidels* (in Yiddish) or *sevivonim* (in Hebrew). The Greeks forbade Jews to learn Torah and so Jews would meet in secret to learn, but if a Greek soldier walked past, they would pretend to be gambling with their *dreidels*. The words *dreidel* (Yiddish) and *sevivon* (Hebrew) both mean to turn or spin. The *dreidel* has four sides, each of which features a Hebrew letter. In Israel, the letters are *nun*, *gimel*, *heh*, and *peh*. Outside Israel, they’re *nun*, *gimel*, *heh*, *shin*. The letters stand for the Hebrew phrase “*Nes gadol haya po/sham*,” meaning, “A great miracle happened here/there” (here for those in Israel, there for those outside of Israel).