Dreidel

From Judaism

A dreidel is a top that children play with. The game is often played on Hanukkah. The top has four sides and each side has a Hebrew letter on it. The letters are: gimel, hey, nun and Pey (in Israel) or shin (outside of Israel). Those are the first four letters of each word in the Hebrew phrase, "A great miracle happened there/here."

[edit] The game

The game is played with markers, sometimes called "gelt" which is the Yiddish word for money (often chocolate "coins" or M&M's represent the "gelt"). To begin the game, everyone puts to pieces of 'gelt' into the pot. Then, one of the children spins the top and wins or loses according to the letter that is on top with the dreidel stops spinning. If the letter is"

• gimmel, the spinner wins the pot
• hey, the spinner wins half the pot
• nun, nothing happens
• shin, the spinner puts two 'coins' in the pot

Then the next person has a chance to spin. The way we play the game, it is over when everyone gets tired of playing.

[edit] Related

• the story of Hanukkah
• Akhlah on Hanukkah dreidel