dreidel

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Simple wooden dreidel.

A dreidel (Yiddish: דרײדל dreydl, Hebrew: סביבון‎ Sevivon) is a four-sided spinning top, played with during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. The dreidel is used for a form of the gambling game Teetotum (T-Totum). Each side of the dreidel bears a letter of the Hebrew alphabet: נ (Nun), ג (Gimel), ה (Hei), ש (Shin), which together form the acronym for "נס גדול היה שם" (Nes Gadol Haya Sham – "a great miracle happened there"). These letters also form a mnemonic for the rules of a gambling game played with a dreidel: Nun stands for the Yiddish word nite ("nothing"), Hei stands for halb ("half"), Gimel for gants ("all"), and Shin for shteln ("put"). In Israel, the fourth side of most dreidels are inscribed with the letter פ (Pei), rendering the acronym, נס גדול היה פה, Nes Gadol Haya Po—"A great miracle happened here" referring to the miracle occurring in the land of Israel. Some stores in Haredi neighbourhoods may sell the traditional ש dreidels.

Some Jewish commentators ascribe symbolic significance to the markings on the dreidel. One commentary, for example, connects the four letters with the four exiles to which the nation of Israel was historically subject—Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome.^[1]

The Yiddish word "dreydl" comes from the word "dreyen" ("to turn"). The Hebrew word "sevivon" comes also from the root "SBB" ("to turn") and was invented by Itamar Ben-Avi (the son of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda) when he was 5 years old. Different terms were used by Hayyim Nahman Bialik in his poems.^{[citation needed]} While the only mandated mitzvot for Hanukkah consist of lighting candles and saying the full hallel, there are numerous other customs that have come to be associated with Hanukkah.

Gameplay

Each player begins with an equal number of game pieces (usually 10-15). The game pieces can be any object, such as pennies, raisins, or chocolate coins.

• At the beginning of each round, every participant puts one game piece into the center "pot". In addition, every time the pot is empty and sometimes if it has one game piece left, every player puts one in the pot.
• Each player spins the dreidel once during their turn. Depending on which side is facing up when it stops spinning, they give or take game pieces from the pot:
  • a) If nun is facing up, the player does nothing.
  • b) If gimmel is facing up, the player gets everything in the pot.
  • c) If hey is facing up, the player gets half of the pieces in the pot. (If there is an odd number, they get half of the total plus one)
  • d) If shin (or peh) is facing up, the player adds a game piece to the pot.
• If the player is out of pieces, they are either "out" or may ask another player for a "loan".

^[2]

Dreidel is now a competitive sport being played 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 is the 2007 MLD Champion. Virtual Dreidel is the 2008 MLD Champion ^[3]. In 2009, Major League Dreidel launched a game version of the Spinagogue and MLD tournaments and original games are now being played around the country during Hanukkah^[4].

In popular culture

The dreidel's popularity is evident in pop culture, which includes the following examples:

• The Kinsey Sicks, an a cappella drag queen quartet, sing a parody of the dreidel song, titled "Maidl, Maidl, Maidl," in their holiday show, titled "Oy Vey in a Manger."^[5]
• "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel" was sung by Kyle in the first South Park Christmas special, "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics" and is featured on the album of the same name.
• In The Simpsons episode "Homer's Triple Bypass", Homer asks Krusty's father Rabbi Krustofski for the money he needs for his operation. Instead of the money he only gets a dreidel, and the following dialogue ensues:

Bart: Any luck, Dad?

Homer: No, but the rabbi gave me this. [spins a dreidel]

Bart: What is that?

Homer: Son, they call it a droodel.^[6]

• In the film Hot Shots!, as Topper Harley enters the training center, the navy sailors are singing "Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel" in the warm-up yard.^[7]
• In The Simpsons episode I Don't Wanna Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Marge stops at Shlomo's Judaica Dreidel Blowout Sale on her way to the prison, where she would visit bank-robber Dwight, whom she promised to visit in order for him to surrender and let her and the other hostages go.^[5]
• Da Vinci's Notebook has produced a slow, menacing industrial version of the "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel" song, somewhat reminiscent of grunge metal band Alice in Chains, in their album The Life and Times of Mike Fanning, featuring a cappella singing filtered through distortion effects.
• For the Christmas Eve 2006 Bumper Edition of Never Mind the Buzzcocks, the Next Lines round was omitted in order that the teams, plus a guest band and members of that show's Identity Parade, performed a particular song (chosen, in a short skit, by Dreidel), a joke on the irony of the presenter, Simon Amstell hosting a Christmas edition of the show despite being Jewish.
• 1988 Bette Midler as her character CC Bloom chants with her co-star Barbara Hershey the dreidel song in the movie Beaches . This is seen during flashbacks of the time they lived together and before they went their separate ways, marrying and becoming famous.
• In 2002, The Braidel® (The Braille Dreidel®) was designed by Marsha Plafkin Hurwitz.
• For the three different versions of Adam Sandler's hit "The Chanukah Song," released between 1994 and 2002, there are a few references to the dreidel, including a performance in the 2002 version by a children's choir, The Drei-Dels."^[5]
• In the opening scene of the film American Psycho, Patrick Bateman corrects his colleague Greg McDermott by saying "Not a menorah, you spin a dreidel."
• In the Hannukah special Chanukah on Planet Matzah Ball, among other characters, there is a dreidel named Spinderella.
• Dreidel was featured at the beginning and the end of the April 7th, 2008, episode of The Daily Show when Jon Stewart was presented a dreidel by one of the audience members.
• Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel was sung by Mrs. Renee in the Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special.
• In the How I Met Your Mother episode Little Minnesota Barney sings a parody on the dreidel song about having sex with Ted's little sister.
• In Futurama: Bender's Big Score, the song "This Trinity's Goin' To War" features the Hanukkah Zombie using a dreidel made of blasting clay as a weapon against the scammers.
• In Jeff Dunham's Very Special Christmas Special, Achmed the Dead Terrorist pronounces a parody on the dreidel song going "Dreidel, dreidel dreidel...I need another dynamite..."
• In Friends, Season 4, Episode 10, Phoebe Buffay used the word "Dreidel" to rhyme with Rachel in a song she wrote for holidays. Rachel didn't like it.
• In Friends, Season 7, Episode 10, Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel was sung by Ross Geller.
• In 2008 the New Yorker ska band The Slackers produced a ska version of the dreidel song, released in 2009 on 7" vinyl under the name "Hanukkah".
• Don McLean sings a song called Dreidel which was released on 27th November 1972 and is featured on the American Pie- The Greatest Hits album.
• On Chuck (TV series), the Buy More Employees gamble on Jeff and Lester playing the dreidel game incorrectly.

See also

• I Have a Little Dreidel aka The Dreidel Song
• Hanukkah music
• Gelt

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dreidels

• Dreidel Wizard
• The Origin of the Dreidel
• Computer program that plays the dreidel game (with full Java source code)
• Dreidel Design
• Yosefa Loshitzky on the connection between the dreidel and Israel's "Operation Cast Lead" in Gaza, December 2008
• MajorLeagueDreidel.com, web page of Major League Dreidel (MLD), "Spin The Dreidel" Tournaments.

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