Spin, Little Dreidel
Can you think of a holiday with its own special game? Hanukkah falls in late November or December. Jewish children around the world play a Hanukkah game with a spinning top called a dreidel. Dreidel is a word that means “turn.”
A dreidel has four sides. On each side is a Hebrew letter: Nun, Gimel, Hay, or Shin. These letters stand for the words Nes Gadol Haya Sham, which mean “a great miracle happened there.” There refers to Israel. But what was the miracle? Actually, there were two.
Long ago, the Jewish people lived in Judea, in what is now Israel. Judea was ruled by King Antiochus of Syria. He wanted everyone he ruled to worship Greek gods, as he did. He sent his soldiers throughout Judea. The soldiers were going to force the Jews to give up their own religion and start worshiping Greek gods.
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The soldiers went into Jerusalem, the capital of Judea. They wrecked the Holy Temple. A small band of Jews fought back and beat the large and powerful Syrian army.
One of the miracles is the victory
of the small Jewish army.
The other miracle took place when the Jewish people returned to their
Temple. They cleaned the Temple and relit the menorah.
A menorah is an oil lamp with seven branches. It was supposed to remain
lighted all the time. But there was only enough oil for one day.
The second miracle is that the oil lasted for
eight days, until more oil could be gotten.
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What does a spinning top have to do with Hanukkah, a holiday that celebrates religious freedom? No one knows for certain. One story says that many years after King Antiochus ruled, the Jews were again told not to practice their religion. This time they were told by their Roman rulers. So the Jews worshiped and studied in secret. They kept toy tops nearby while they studied. If the Roman soldiers found them, they could say they were only playing a game.
These days, many children still play the dreidel game. Each child gets the same number of tokens, which are often nuts, candy, or coins. Each child puts two or three tokens into the middle. Then he or she takes a turn spinning the dreidel. If the dreidel lands on Nun, the player gets nothing. If it lands on Hay, he gets half. If it lands on Shin, he shares—puts one token into the middle. If it lands on Gimel, he gets everything. The players then put more tokens into the middle.
