Great Miracles Happen Here

December 9, 2025 in From the Clergy, Rabbi Greg Harris, Scroll

By Rabbi Greg Harris

Dreidel trivia: According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the most dreidels spinning simultaneously for at least 10 seconds is 820. The longest dreidel spin is one minute, 29.93 seconds. And the galactic record for longest dreidel spin is held by Jeff Hoffman, a NASA astronaut, when he spun his dreidel on a space shuttle mission. His dreidel spun for over an hour as his dreidel was barely affected by the friction from gravity.

I must admit that I have a rabbinic dream of Beth El setting the new Guinness record for most dreidels spinning. Can you imagine the Bender Social Hall filled with hundreds of people of all ages… spinning dreidels? Maybe we would need an even bigger space to celebrate and share our pride in Jewish living. It is a dream that makes me smile each time I think of it.

The dreidel recalls the miracles of Hanukkah through its letters: Nun/Gimmel/Hey/Shin. It is an acronym for the sentence: Nes Gadol Haya Sham – “A Great Miracle Happened There.” It refers to the dual miracles of Hanukkah – the lasting oil and the Maccabees’ victory.

In Israel, the dreidel changes the Shin for a Pey – adjusting “A Great Miracle Happened There,” which we say in the Diaspora, to “A Great Miracle Happened Here.” I have always loved how Israel remains the geographic center of our hopes, prayers, and even our games well before the modern State of Israel existed.

But miracles do not only happen Sham, there.

Rabbi Shalom Noach Berezovsky was known as the Slonimer Rebbe (1911-2000). His most well-known book is called Netivot Shalom. He writes, “The essence of the Greek war to destroy the Jews was by means of darkening the eyes of Israel. The Greeks knew that they would not be able to successfully defeat the Jews by military means – rather only by darkening their eyes…”

The Slonimer Rebbe teaches that the defeat of the Jewish People is only possible if we let the light of Jewish pride, joy, and miracle be extinguished within ourselves. We are in a moment when many people feel deflated and concerned about serious issues of the Jewish community. This Hanukkah though, I am going to spin the dreidel with a Pey to affirm for myself that Great Miracles Happen Here as well. Our eyes will not be darkened and our spirits will shine bright as a community. We need each other for that to be true so I look forward to eating a latke together, spinning a dreidel, and caring for each other beaming with pride.