At North Shore Congregation Israel in the Chicago suburb of Glencoe, everyone's dressed for the occasion.

[Group singing "Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah"] We'll light the menorah.

Let's have a party We'll all dance the horah Gather 'round the table, we'll give you a treat.

These children reenact the Hanukkah story.

What happened to our temple?

Look at this mess!

It's horrible, you guys.

Let's clean it up.

It's a mess!

You guys, look, there must be some oil in the sanctuary.

We need the oil to light the hanukkiah [Overlapping Chatter] And we test our luck at a game of dreidel.

Okay.

- Dreidel dreidel dreidel.

I made you out clay.

And when you're dry and ready, oh dreidel I shall play.

- Alright, ready?

Shin!

- Shin.

Alright, I gotta put one in.

There we go.

A dreidel is a four-sided spinning top with the Hebrew letters, nun, gimel, hei and shin, which stands for the phrase, "nes gadol hayah sham" "A great miracle happened there."

- Or if you're playing dreidel in the land of Israel, - It says, "nes gadol hayah po" A great miracle happened here.

- Players begin with an even number of game pieces.

You can use raisins, pennies, or more commonly Hanukkah gelt - foil covered chocolate coins.

- You spin a dreidel and it depends on what you land on, but you get a certain amount of chocolate coins, so it looks like a coin on top, but then you peel it off and then it's chocolate.

The only fun part about dreidel is spinning it, getting all the chocolate coins.

Yeah, it's so yummy.

[Singing "Nun Gimel Hei Shin"] - I'm, I'm hoping for you.

I'm pulling for you here.

None.

You are not doing well, man.

Gimel!

Right there!

I've wiped him out.

I think I win.

Here, have one on me.

- Thank you!

- The dreidel is not my favorite.

It's never really been, been my jam.

- It's a little covetous, isn't it?

- Yeah, dreidel, it's, you know, it's a gambling game.

They say that all the way back in the times of the Seleucid conquest of Israel, they forbade Jews from studying Torah.

So Jews would gather together and study Torah, but when the army would come in to try to catch them in the act, they would pull out these tops and say, no, we're just playing a game.

So that's the story.

Who knows the, you know, the exact source of it, but that's the story we tell.

- Could this ancient game of spinning tops use a little livening up?

Well, how about this?

[Man speaking into a megaphone while kids cheer] During Hanukkah in 2018, students at this New Jersey school set a record for the most number of dreidels spinning at once.

1,369 to be exact.

[Musical Transition] "Something was missing."

One company even designed a game board called a Spinagogue, where serious dreidelers can play.

- "A stadium, which transforms into a star of David."

And in 2023, 250 miles above Earth, this astronaut set a dreidel spinning in zero gravity.

"Happy Hanukkah, the International Space Station."

With very little friction to slow it down, it might still be spinning today - as long as nothing gets in the way.

Now that's out of this world.