Hanukkah

Happy Hanukkah
From 101lifeStyle.com

Dreidel - Hanukkah Game:

A dreidel has four sides and spins like a top, each side having a Hebrew letter printed on it. It is one of the famous Hanukkah game, where the dreidel is spun and betting is done on the particular Hebrew letter. The children usually play dreidel and it can be made at home. The children take bets of a pot of gelt, that is chocolate which is covered in gold foil, but other bets too are there such as candy, raisins, nuts, etc. This is a game which is played only during Hanukkah by the children.

In Yiddish, the word dreidel comes from the German word “drehen”, which means “to turn”. The meaning of dreil in Hebrew is “sevivon”, which also means “to turn” and comes from the root “savov”.

The four letters that are put on the four corners of the dreidel are connected to the miracle that took place. These letters are Nes that means N- miracle, Gadol that means G-great, Haya, that means H-happened and Sham, that means S-there, the meaning of Israel. It means a great miracle happened in there that is Israel.

The origin of this game started at the time of Antiochus, at that time this game was very popular. During that period, the Jews were not given the liberty to follow their religion, so whenever they gathered together to study the Torah, they would carry a top along with them. And if the soldiers appeared from somewhere, they would hide up the Torah and pretend that they were playing a game of gambling with the top in hand.

Any number of people can play the dreidel game. At the beginning of the game each player is given an equal number of gelt pieces or candy, usually 10-15. This game is played by 4 to 6 players, and each person gets equal amount of candy or bet material, whatever is wished to be used. The game begins this way; each player should have at least 20 pieces of candy or whatever they will be betting with. In each round, at the beginning, each player puts one piece of candy into the center pot. Then each of them take turns to spin the dreidel, and these are the following meanings which are given to each of the Hebrew letters:

In Yiddish, nun means “nothing”. If the player spins the dreidel and a nun comes face up, there it means that the spinner has lost, he gets nothing.
Ganz means “everything” in Yiddish, so when the dreidel lands with ganz facing up, whatever is in the pot goes to the spinner.
In Yiddish, hey means "half". If the dreidel lands with hey facing upwards, then half of the pot goes to the spinner.
In Yiddish, shin means “put in” and “pey” means “pay”. If a dreidel falls with a shin or pey facing up, then the players will add a piece of whatever he is betting to the pot.
If a player does not have any piece of candy to bet, then he goes out of the game.

For those who are not keen on using candy for the game, then you can use points for this game, all you have to do is get a piece of paper and keep track of the points each person gets. Set the maximum number of points and the person who gets the maximum points is the winner of the game.

Hanukkah Prayers

Distribution Of Hanukkah Gelts