The spinning top used during the Hanukkah celebration is called a dreidel in Yiddish and a sevivon in Hebrew. It has four sides and is played throughout the eight days of Hanukkah. If we want to figure out the meaning behind this fun game we need to know a little about the Hebrew letters on each of the four sides of the dreidel. There is a (nun), a (gimel), a (hei), and a (shin), which together form the acronym for Nes Gadol Hayah Sham, which means, "A great miracle happened there."
The miracle being referred to is the traditional Jewish story of the miracle of oil that lasted eight days instead of one. When the Jewish temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 167 BCE in an attempt to prevent Jewish observance, many ritual objects were also destroyed, including pure olive oil used to light the menorah in the temple. It was considered a great miracle that some of the pure oil was even found when the Maccabees reclaimed the Holy Temple in 164 BCE, and the oil that was supposed to last for one day lasted eight days.
These days, the dreidel game is played with special chocolate coins called "Gelt" in Yiddish (or gold) that have Israeli currency or Hanukkah symbols on them. At the beginning of each round, each of the participants gets about 10-15 of the chocolate coins. Each player puts one of the coins into the centre pot. Whenever the pot is empty, that is the sign that each player needs to put a coin in.
The participant then spins the dreidel and depending upon which side of the dreidel is facing up, they give or take the gelt coins from the centre pot:
? If it is a nun the player does nothing.
? If it is a gimel facing up, the player gets everything in the pot.
? If it is a hei facing up, the player gets half of the pieces in the pot. (If there are an odd number of pieces in the pot, the player takes half the pot rounded up to the nearest whole number).
? If it is a shin facing up, the player adds a game piece to the pot.
So have fun playing with the dreidel this Hanukkah and I hope that you will all enjoy the chocolate. Happy holidays!
Raanan Mallek is the education and youth director of Congregation Har El in West Vancouver.
