![Colorful dreidels2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Colorful_dreidels2.JPG)
A dreidel, also dreidle or dreidl ( ; yi, דרײדל, dreydl, plural: ''dreydlech''; he, סביבון, sevivon) is a four-sided
spinning top
A spinning top, or simply a top, is a toy with a squat body and a sharp point at the bottom, designed to be spun on its vertical axis, balancing on the tip due to the gyroscopic effect.
Once set in motion, a top will usually wobble for a few ...
, played during the
Jewish holiday
Jewish holidays, also known as Jewish festivals or ''Yamim Tovim'' ( he, ימים טובים, , Good Days, or singular , in transliterated Hebrew []), are holidays observed in Judaism and by JewsThis article focuses on practices of mainstre ...
of Hanukkah. The dreidel is a Jewish variant on the
teetotum
A teetotum (or T-totum) is a form of spinning top most commonly used for gambling games. It has a polygonal body marked with letters or numbers, which indicate the result of each spin. Usage goes back to (at least) ancient Greeks and Romans, w ...
, a gambling toy found in many European cultures.
Each side of the dreidel bears a letter of the Hebrew alphabet:
(''
nun
A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...
''),
(''
gimel
Gimel is the third letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Gīml , Hebrew Gimel , Aramaic Gāmal , Syriac Gāmal , and Arabic (in alphabetical order; fifth in spelling order). Its sound value in the original Phoenician and in all d ...
''),
(''
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 ve ...
as a mnemonic for the rules of a gambling game derived from
teetotum
A teetotum (or T-totum) is a form of spinning top most commonly used for gambling games. It has a polygonal body marked with letters or numbers, which indicate the result of each spin. Usage goes back to (at least) ancient Greeks and Romans, w ...
played with a dreidel: ''nun'' stands for the word (''nisht'', "not", meaning "nothing"), ''gimel'' for (''gants'', "entire, whole"), ''hei'' for (''halb'', "half"), and ''shin'' for (''shtel arayn'', "put in"). However, according to
folk etymology, they represent the Hebrew phrase (''nes gadól hayá sham'', "a great miracle happened there"), referring to the
miracle of the cruse of oil
Miracle of the cruse of oil ( he, נֵס פַּךְ הַשֶּׁמֶן) or the Miracle of Hanukkah is an Aggadah depicted in the Babylonian Talmud as one of the reasons for Hanukkah. In the story, the miracle occurred after the liberation of the Te ...
. For this reason, most dreidels in Israel replace the letter ''shin'' with a letter
(
pe),
to represent the phrase (''nes gadól hayá po'', "a great miracle happened ''here''"); however, many
Haredi
Haredi Judaism ( he, ', ; also spelled ''Charedi'' in English; plural ''Haredim'' or ''Charedim'') consists of groups within Orthodox Judaism that are characterized by their strict adherence to ''halakha'' (Jewish law) and traditions, in oppos ...
communities insist that the letter ''shin'' should be used in the Holy Land as well, because the reference to "there" means in the
Holy Temple
The Temple in Jerusalem, or alternatively the Holy Temple (; , ), refers to the two now-destroyed religious structures that served as the central places of worship for Israelites and Jews on the modern-day Temple Mount in the Old City of Jer ...
and not in the Land.
While not mandated (a
mitzvah) for Hanukkah (the only traditional ' are lighting candles and saying the full
hallel
Hallel ( he, הַלֵּל, "Praise") is a Jewish prayer, a verbatim recitation from Psalms which is recited by observant Jews on Jewish holidays as an act of praise and thanksgiving.
Holy days
Hallel consists of six Psalms (113–118), which ...
), 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
![Ancient 4 sided spinning top](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Ancient_4_sided_spinning_top.jpg)
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
A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...
'' 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 ve ...
word (''nisht'', "not", meaning "nothing"), ''
gimel
Gimel is the third letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Gīml , Hebrew Gimel , Aramaic Gāmal , Syriac Gāmal , and Arabic (in alphabetical order; fifth in spelling order). Its sound value in the original Phoenician and in all d ...
'' 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
The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the ...
in seclusion as they hid, sometimes in caves, from the
Seleucids
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 M ...
under
Antiochus IV. At the first sign of Seleucids approaching, their
Torah scrolls
A ( he, סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה; "Book of Torah"; plural: ) or Torah scroll is a handwritten copy of the Torah, meaning the five books of Moses (the first books of the Hebrew Bible). The Torah scroll is mainly used in the ritual of Tor ...
would be concealed and be replaced by dreidels. The variant names ' (destiny) and ' (a little throw) were also current in Yiddish until
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
.
In the wake of Zionism, the dreidel was renamed ' 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
![Dreidel 001](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Dreidel_001.jpg)
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 ve ...
word ' comes from the word ' ("to turn", compare to ', meaning the same in German). The
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
word ' comes from the
Semitic root
The roots of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages are characterized as a sequence of consonants or "radicals" (hence the term consonantal root). Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the formation of actual words by adding the vowels ...
("to turn") and was invented by
Itamar Ben-Avi
Itamar Ben-Avi (; []; 31 July 1882 – 8 April 1943) was the first native speaker of modern Hebrew, Hebrew in modern times. He was a journalist and Zionism, Zionist activist.
Biography
Itamar Ben-Avi was born as Ben-Zion Ben-Yehuda in Jerusalem ...
(the son of
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda
Eliezer Ben‑Yehuda ( he, אֱלִיעֶזֶר בֵּן־יְהוּדָה}; ; born Eliezer Yitzhak Perlman, 7 January 1858 – 16 December 1922) was a Russian–Jewish linguist, grammarian, and journalist, renowned as the lexicographer of ...
) when he was five years old.
Hayyim Nahman Bialik
Hayim Nahman Bialik ( he, חיים נחמן ביאַליק; January 9, 1873 – July 4, 1934), was a Jewish poet who wrote primarily in Hebrew but also in Yiddish. Bialik was one of the pioneers of modern Hebrew poetry. He was part of the vangu ...
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
Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...
from
Udmurtia
Udmurtia (russian: Удму́ртия, r=Udmúrtiya, p=ʊˈdmurtʲɪjə; udm, Удмуртия, ''Udmurtija''), or the Udmurt Republic (russian: Удмуртская Республика, udm, Удмурт Республика, Удмурт ...
and
Tatarstan
The Republic of Tatarstan (russian: Республика Татарстан, Respublika Tatarstan, p=rʲɪsˈpublʲɪkə tətɐrˈstan; tt-Cyrl, Татарстан Республикасы), or simply Tatarstan (russian: Татарстан, tt ...
the local historian A. V. Altyntsev utilised several other appellations of a dreidel, such as ''volchok'', ''khanuke-volchok'', ''fargl'', ''varfl'', ''dzihe'' and ''zabavke''.
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,
Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, the
Seleucid Empire and
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
. A
gematria
Gematria (; he, גמטריא or gimatria , plural or , ''gimatriot'') is the practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word or phrase according to an alphanumerical cipher. A single word can yield several values depending on the cipher ...
reading yields the number 358, identical to the value of the four letters used to spell "Moshiach" (''
Messiah
In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; ,
; ,
; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...
'').
Rules of the game
![Dreidel](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Dreidel.stl)
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 (''shin'') or (''pe'') 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 a ''shin'' results in adding 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
A teetotum (or T-totum) is a form of spinning top most commonly used for gambling games. It has a polygonal body marked with letters or numbers, which indicate the result of each spin. Usage goes back to (at least) ancient Greeks and Romans, w ...
, where the letters A, D, N and T form a
mnemonic
A mnemonic ( ) device, or memory device, is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval (remembering) in the human memory for better understanding.
Mnemonics make use of elaborative encoding, retrieval cues, and imag ...
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
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.
Collections
![Most Valuable Dreidel Spinning During Game with Coins by Estate Diamond jewelry](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Most_Valuable_Dreidel_Spinning_During_Game_with_Coins_by_Estate_Diamond_jewelry.jpg)
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
Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership (Spertus College or Spertus) is a private educational center in Chicago, Illinois. Spertus offers learning opportunities that are "rooted in Jewish wisdom and culture and open to all" although ...
, 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.
![Russian Dreidel (1)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Russian_Dreidel_%281%29.jpg)
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
Moshe Murro was an Israeli artist.
Biography
Moshe Murro was born in 1888. He set up a ''Kamiya'' (Amulet) workshop, to restore old ivory or stone amulets at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְר ...
from the
Bezalel Academy in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
in 1929. Rare collectible dreidels from
Cochin
Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...
are made from
iron
Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...
; 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 cent ...
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
The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco skyscraper on the East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. At , it is the tallest brick building in the world with a steel fra ...
in New York. Previous holders of the title were Chabad of South Palm Beach with a dreidel valued at $14,000.
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'' 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
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 fac ...
poker, invented by a
Judaica company called ModernTribe. Other new dreidel games include Staccabees and Maccabees.
See also
*
I Have a Little Dreidel
"I Have a Little Dreidel" (also known as "The Dreidel Song" or "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel") is a children's Hanukkah song in the English-speaking world that also exists in a Yiddish version called "Ikh Bin A Kleyner Dreydl", (Yiddish: Lit: I a ...
(The Dreidel Song)
*
Hanukkah music
Hanukkah music (or Chanukah music) ( he, שירי חנוכה) contains several songs associated with the festival of Hanukkah.
Hanukkah blessings
There are three Hanukkah blessings (Modern Hebrew: בְּרָכוֹת לֵחֲנֻכָּה ''Ber ...
*
Hanukkah gelt
Hanukkah gelt ( yi, חנוכה געלט '; he, דמי חנוכה ', both meaning literally "Hanukkah money"), also known as gelt (), refers to money given as presents during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. It is typically given to children and ...
*
Jewish ceremonial art
Jewish ceremonial art, also known as Judaica (), refers to an array of objects used by Jews for ritual purposes. Because enhancing a mitzvah by performing it with an especially beautiful object is considered a praiseworthy way of honoring God's ...
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
Israeli inventions
Tops
Traditional toys
Wooden toys
Yiddish words and phrases
he:סביבון#סביבון חנוכה