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dreidel

 
Dictionary: drei·del  drei·dl (drād'l) pronunciation
also n.
A toy similar to a spinning top used in games of chance played by children and adults at Hanukkah.

[Yiddish dreydl, from dreyen, to turn, from Middle High German dræjen, from Old High German drāen.]


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Wikipedia: Dreidel
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Simple wooden dreidel.

A dreidel (Yiddish: דרײדל dreydl, Hebrew: סביבוןSevivon) 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.

Contents

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]

In popular culture

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

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.[4]

See also

References

External links


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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Dreidel" Read more