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THE STORY
OF THE
DREIDEL

Elizabeth Applebaum

Gift Guide Editor

P

robably the most popular Chanukah
song ever written focuses on a "little
dreidel" made "out of clay."
What Jewish child in day school,
Sunday school or summer camp has-
n't learned this number, only to gleefully drive
his or her parents crazy by singing it 100 times
in repetition?
The holiday's other most recognizable sym-
bol, the menorah, has religious significance,
recalling the eight days the oil burned in the Beit
HaMikdash, or Holy Temple, recaptured by the
Jews.
The dreidel, or sevivion in Hebrew, has a very
different story.
The game of dreidel -- take or put a certain
amount in the pot, based upon the letter on
which the driedel stops after it spins — is a cus-
tom that began in Jewish communities during
the Middle Ages. And most scholars believe this
tradition is based on a medieval German gam-
bling game where players tossed dice marked
with the letters N, G, H and S, for nichts (noth-
ing), ganz (all), half(half) and steill in (put in).
From the start, the Jewish version of the
game featured four Hebrew letters: nun, gimmel,
hey, shin. Initially, these stood for the Yiddish

words nimm, gib, halb and, shtell, which mean:

take, give, half and put. Quickly, however, some-
one quite astute — but alas forgotten in history —
noticed that the letters also were the first that
began each word in nes gadol haya sham, or "A
great miracle happened there." In Israel, of
course, dreidels instead bear the letters nun, gim-
mel, hey, peh, for "a great miracle happened

here."

(Incidentally, those intrigued by Gematria,
which assigns a numerical equivalent to each
Hebrew letter, point out a compelling tidbit
regarding the numerical total of the four Hebrew
letters on the dreidel: it equals that for the word
mashiach, or messiah).
The game of dreidel likely became popular
for two reasons.
First, young Jewish boys were supposed to
spend their time studying Torah, not playing
games. But there were exceptions, like the holi-
days, when such "frivolous" behavior was accept-
ed.
Second, Jews are directed to enjoy the
Chanukah lights, not to work while they are
burning. So what to do with all that time? Play
dreidel, of course.
Today, it isn't only clay that makes a nifty

dreidel. Jewish gift boutiques and art stores sell
dreidels made of everything from glass to silver
to ceramics. Visit Israel and you might be lucky
enough to catch Yemenite Jews playing dreidel,
which they call duame, with a spinning top they
traditionally make of nutshells.
Though dreidel is certainly the best-known
game for Chanukah, it's not the only one associ-
ated with the holiday. In Persia, Jewish children
enjoyed many games of chance, the most popu-
lar of which was backgammon.
In years past, Ashkenazi Jewish children
played a game with cards that bore Jewish pic-
tures and were inscribed with Hebrew letters.

Want to try your hand
playing dreidel on the Web?

CHECK OUT ANY OF THESE SITES:

NA/ww.holidays.netichanukah/dreidel.html

www.billybear4kids.com/holidays/kanukkah/random2.11tm

www.jewiaq.org/dreiciel/

www.olmorg.il/yky/article.php/1309

For more on Chanukah and driedels visit:
www.ohr.org.il/yhiy/article.phal 309

IN GIFT GUIDE I • NOVEMBER 20(15 • 11