A dreidel, also dreidle or dreidl, ( ; yi, דרײדל, dreydl, plural: ''dreydlech''; he, סביבון, sevivon) is a four-sided
spinning top, played during the
Jewish holiday of
Hanukkah. The dreidel is a Jewish variant on the
teetotum, a gambling toy found in
Europe and
Latin America.
Each side of the dreidel bears a letter of the Hebrew alphabet:
(''
nun''),
(''
gimel''),
(''
hei''),
(''
shin'').
These letters are represented in
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
as a mnemonic for the rules of a gambling game derived from
teetotum played with a dreidel: ''nun'' stands for the word (''nisht'', "not", meaning "nothing"), ''gimel'' for (''gantz'', "entire, whole"), ''hei'' for (''halb'', "half"), and ''shin'' for (''shtel arayn'', "put in"). However, according to
folk etymology
Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...
, they represent the Hebrew phrase (''nes gadól hayáh sham'', "a great miracle happened there"), referring to the
miracle of the cruse of oil. For this reason, most dreidels in Israel replace the letter ''shin'' with the letter
(
pe), to represent the phrase (''nes gadól hayáh poh'', "a great miracle happened ''here''"); however, many
Haredi communities insist that ''shin'' be used in the
Land of Israel
The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine (see also Isra ...
as well, because the reference to "there" means in the
Temple in Jerusalem and not in Israel. As a result, five-sided dreidels were invented in 2022 to represent the Hebrew phase (''nes gadól hayáh sham poh'', "a great miracle happened here and there" or "a great miracle happened everywhere"). Twenty-sided dreidels are very unique as they are not spinning tops but twenty-sided
dice
Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing g ...
instead.
While not mandated (a
mitzvah
In its primary meaning, the Hebrew word (; he, מִצְוָה, ''mīṣvā'' , plural ''mīṣvōt'' ; "commandment") refers to a commandment commanded by God to be performed as a religious duty. Jewish law () in large part consists of discus ...
) for Hanukkah (the only traditional ' are lighting candles and saying the full
hallel), spinning the dreidel is a traditional game played during the holiday.
Astronaut
Jeffrey A. Hoffman spun a dreidel made by Israeli silversmith Gideon Hay for an hour in outer space.
Origins
The dreidel developed from an Irish or English top introduced into Germany known as a ',
which was popular around Christmas time
and dates back to ancient Greek and Roman times.
The teetotum was inscribed with letters denoting the Latin words for "nothing", "everything", "half", and "put in". In German this came to be called a ', with German letters for the same concepts. Adapted to the Hebrew alphabet when Jews adopted the game, these letters were replaced by ''
nun'' which stands for the
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
word (''nisht'', "not", meaning "nothing"), ''
gimel'' for (''gants'', "entire, whole"), ''
hei'' for (''halb'', "half"), and ''
shin'' for (''shtel arayn'', "put in"). The letters served as a means to recalling the rules of the game.
This theory states that when the game spread to Jewish communities unfamiliar with Yiddish, the denotations of the Hebrew letters were not understood. As a result, there arose Jewish traditions to explain their assumed meaning. However, in Judaism there are often multiple explanations developed for words. A popular conjecture had it that the letters abbreviated the words (''nes gadól hayá sham'', "a great miracle happened there"), an idea that became attached to dreidels when the game entered into Hanukkah festivities.
According to a tradition first documented in 1890,
the game was developed by Jews who illegally studied the
Torah in seclusion as they hid, sometimes in caves, from the
Seleucids under
Antiochus IV
Antiochus IV Epiphanes (; grc, Ἀντίοχος ὁ Ἐπιφανής, ''Antíochos ho Epiphanḗs'', "God Manifest"; c. 215 BC – November/December 164 BC) was a Greek Hellenistic king who ruled the Seleucid Empire from 175 BC until his deat ...
. At the first sign of Seleucids approaching, their
Torah scrolls would be concealed and be replaced by dreidels. The variant names ' (destiny) and ' (a little throw) were also current in
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
, until
the Holocaust.
In the wake of Zionism, the dreidel was renamed ' (; from the Semetic root s-b-b, meaning 'to rotate') in modern Israel and the letters were altered, with ''shin'' generally replaced by ''
pe''. This yields the reading (''nes gadól hayá po'', "a great miracle happened ''here''").
Etymology
The
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
word ' comes from the word ' ("to turn", compare to ', meaning the same in German). The
Hebrew word ' comes from the
Semitic root ("to turn") and was invented by
Itamar Ben-Avi (the son of
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda) when he was five years old.
Hayyim Nahman Bialik used a different word, ''kirkar'' (from the root – "to spin"), in his poems, but it was not adopted into spoken Hebrew.
In the lexicon of
Ashkenazi Jews from
Udmurtia and
Tatarstan the local historian A. V. Altyntsev utilised several other appellations of a dreidel, such as ''volchok'' (Russian: ''волчок'', "top"), ''khanuke-volchok'', ''fargl'', ''varfl'', ''dzihe'' and ''zabavke'' (Russian: ''забавка'', "entertaining piece", "toy").
Symbolism
Some rabbis ascribe symbolic significance to the markings on the dreidel. One commentary, for example, connects the four letters with the four nations to which the House of Judah was historically subject—
Babylonia
Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c. ...
,
Persia, the
Seleucid Empire
The Seleucid Empire (; grc, Βασιλεία τῶν Σελευκιδῶν, ''Basileía tōn Seleukidōn'') was a Greek state in West Asia that existed during the Hellenistic period from 312 BC to 63 BC. The Seleucid Empire was founded by the ...
and
Rome. A
gematria reading yields the number 358, identical to the value of the four letters used to spell "Moshiach" (''
Messiah'').
Rules of the game
Each player begins with an equal number of game pieces (usually 10–15). The game pieces can be any object, such as
chocolate gelt, pennies, raisins, etc.
*To start the game, every participant puts one game piece into the center "pot". Every player also puts one piece into the pot when the pot is empty or there is only one game piece in the pot.
*Each player spins the dreidel once during their turn. Depending on which side is facing up when it stops spinning, the player whose turn it is gives or takes game pieces from the pot:
**If (''nun'') is facing up, the player does nothing.
**If (''gimel'') is facing up, the player gets everything in the pot.
**If (''hei'') is 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 ''hei'' is facing up and only one piece is in the pot, the player can either take the piece or not.
**If (''shin'') is facing up, the player adds one of their game pieces to the pot (sometimes accompanied by the chant "shin, shin, put one in"). In some game versions, the player adds three game pieces to the pot, one for each stem of the letter ''shin'' ().
*If the player is out of pieces, they are either "out" or may ask another player for a "loan".
These rules are comparable to the rules for a classic four-sided
teetotum, where the letters A, D, N and T form a
mnemonic for the rules of the game, ' (take), ' (put), ' (nothing), and ' (all). Similarly, the Hebrew letters on a dreidel may be taken as a mnemonic for the game rules in Yiddish. Occasionally, in the United States, the Hebrew letters on the dreidel form an English-language mnemonic about the rules: ''hei'' or "H" for "half"; ''gimel'' or "G" for "get all"; ''nun'' or "N" for "nothing"; and ''shin'' or "S" for "share".
Analysis of the game
Thomas Robinson and Sujith Vijay have shown that the expected number of spins in a game of dreidel is
O(n2), where n is the number of game pieces each player begins with. The implied constant depends on the number of players.
Robert Feinerman has shown that the game of dreidel is unfair, in that the first player to spin has a better expected outcome than the second player, and the second better than the third, and so on.
Tournaments
Dreidel is now a spoof competitive sport in North America. Major League Dreidel (MLD), founded in New York City in 2007, hosts dreidel tournaments during the holiday of Hanukkah. In MLD tournaments the player with the longest time of spin (TOS) is the winner. MLD is played on a Spinagogue, the official spinning stadium of Major League Dreidel. Pamskee was the 2007 MLD Champion. Virtual Dreidel was the 2008 MLD Champion. In 2009, Major League Dreidel launched a game version of the Spinagogue.
In 2009, ''
Good Morning America
''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...
'' published a story on Dreidel Renaissance reporting on the rising popularity of the dreidel. Dreidel games that have come out on the market since 2007 include No Limit Texas Dreidel, a cross between traditional dreidel and
Texas Hold'em poker
Texas hold 'em (also known as Texas holdem, hold 'em, and holdem) is one of the most popular variants of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five community cards are dealt face ...
, invented by a
Judaica company called ModernTribe. Other new dreidel games include Staccabees and Maccabees.
Collections
Childhood enjoyment of dreidels has led to a growing interest in collecting them in adulthood.
Jewish institutions such as the
Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership, Yeshiva University Museum and
Temple Emanu-El in New York, house dreidel collections, as do museums such as the Spinning Top and Yo-Yo Museum in Burlington, Wisconsin.
Antique dreidels are of increasing value and interest: different styles of dreidels are to be found across the world. Exemplars include dreidels fashioned in wood, silver, brass and lead. One particularly rare dreidel is cast from an ivory original by
Moshe Murro from the
Bezalel Academy
Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design ( he, בצלאל, אקדמיה לאמנות ועיצוב) is a public college of design and art located in Jerusalem. Established in 1906 by Jewish painter and sculptor Boris Schatz, Bezalel is Israel's ol ...
in
Jerusalem in 1929. Rare collectible dreidels from
Cochin are made from
iron; they are black in colour decorated with silver markings, made by an intricate
Bidriware
Bidriware is a metal handicraft from the city of Bidar in southern India. It was developed in the 14th century C.E. during the rule of the Bahmani Sultans. The term "bidriware" originates from the township of Bidar, which is still the chief cen ...
style process.
The Guinness World Record for Most Valuable Dreidel was achieved by Estate Diamond Jewelry in November 2019 and was valued at $70,000. The design of Estate Diamond Jewelry's dreidel was inspired by the
Chrysler Building in New York. Previous holders of the title were Chabad of South Palm Beach with a dreidel valued at $14,000.
See also
* "
I Have a Little Dreidel" (A song sung when playing dreidel)
*
Hanukkah music
*
Hanukkah gelt
*
Jewish ceremonial art
Notes
References
External links
Dreidel WizardComputer program that plays the dreidel game (with full Java source code)Types of Dreidels (part of world's largest collection of dice)
{{Authority control
Gambling games
Hanukkah traditions
Israeli games
Spinning tops
Traditional toys
Wooden toys
Yiddish words and phrases
he:סביבון#סביבון חנוכה