What in the World is a Dreidel!? (pronounced "dray-dle")
A dreidel is a 4-sided spinning top with one Hebrew letter on each side. Those Hebrew letters are pronounced:
נ "nun", ג "gimmel", ה "hay", ש "shin"
Each of these letters stand for a Hebrew word:
Nun = Nace, which means "miracle"
Gimmel = gadole, which means "great"
Hay= hayah, which means "was"
Shin = sham, which means "there"
Put them together and you get, "Nace gadol hayah sham"
A great miracle happened there (in Israel)
Dreidels sold in Israel have the letter פ "pay" instead of the "shin". The letter "pay" stands for the word "po", which means "here". In Israel they say,
"Nace gadole hayah po"
A great miracle happened here (in Israel)
What is the miracle that happened?
Aha! For more about the miracle of Chanukah you'll need to read my post about Chanukah is the Festival of Lights December 20-28, 2011. This post is strictly about the dreidel game!
What does dreidel mean?
Dreidel is a Yiddish word that means "to spin". In Hebrew, the dreidel is called a "sih-vee-vone" which also means "to spin".
Origins of the dreidel - A brief history lesson:
During the time when the Greek emperor, Antiochus, took possession of the land of Israel around 174 B.C.E., Jews were forbidden to practice their religion, or study the Torah (the five books of Moses). Soldiers were ordered to look for Jews who were disobeying and kill them. When Jews gathered secretly to study Torah, they would bring dreidels with them. If the Greek soldiers appeared, they would quickly hide what they were doing and pretend to be playing with a top.
How to play the dreidel game:
Any number of people can play at one time. Each player starts with an equal number of gelt (coins). Usually 10 or 15. "Gelt" could be gold-colored, foil-wrapped chocolate coins, or pennies, or even peanuts.
At the beginning of each round, every player puts one piece into the center (the pot). Then they take turns spinning the dreidel. The score for your turn depends on which letter is showing on top when the dreidel stops. Here's the value for each letter:
נ "nun" stands for "nicht" which means "nothing" in Yiddish. If the dreidel lands with a "nun" facing up, the spinner gets nothing.
ג "gimmel" stands for "ganz" which is Yiddish for "everything". If the dreidel lands with the "gimmel" facing up the spinner gets everything in the pot. This is letter you hope to get as often as possible! After the pot is emptied, every player has to put one coin back in to the pot.
ה "hay" stands for "halb" which means "half". If the spinner lands with a "hay" facing up the spinner gets half of the pot.
ש "shin" stands for "shtel" which means "put in" in Yiddish. If the dreidel lands with a "shin" facing up the player adds a coin to the pot.
When a player runs out of pieces they are "out" of the game.
There are some family members who take their dreidel games very seriously. There's a lot of discussion about which is the "best" dreidel to use. There are the "favorite" dreidels which supposedly land on "gimmel" more often. Don't even think of 'blowing" on the dreidel or touching it to make it go faster or to tip it over so it will land the way you want!
One note of warning: If you eat your gelt before the game is over you may end up out of the game...unless someone will give you "credit", which is a whole other subject that I'll leave to the mortgage lenders!
To those who celebrate it, Happy Chanukah!
For a great Chanukah song click here to listen to the Maccabeats!
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