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Why Dreidel?

Why Dreidel?

Chanuka wouldn't be Chanuka without dreidling, but how and why do we dreidel? Those little Chanuka spinning tops,called dreidel or (in Israel) sevivon, have been make for ages in every conceivable colour and size. On the four sides are the Hebrew letters nun, gimmel, hei and shin.

shin hey gimmel nun

Why? These four are the first letters of the words that form the sentence 'Nes gadol haya sham': There was a great miracle - because the kosher oil that should only be enough for one day, burned for the full eight days of the rededication of the Temple.

The letters are also handy when you're playing, because dreidling is gambling - usually the stake is sweets. Each player turns the dreidel in turn. I
f the letter Nun ends up on top when it stops turning, the player gets Nothing.
Gimmel is much better: if that ends up on top you get Ganz, which is Yiddish for: everything! You get to take the whole stake from the middle of the table.
Hei is Half, so you get half.
Shin is your worst option: if that comes up, it's shaleem - pay or if you prefer the Yiddish: shtell ein. In other words: put some of your sweets in the stake.

And why do we play the dreidel in the first place? Ah, it's fun, you're hoping for a miracle while you're playing - but the 'official' reason is: under the Greek occupation Jewish lessons were forbidden. So of course the lessons went on as usual, only the teacher took along a dreidel; if a soldier turned up, he just saw a bunch of innocent children playing with their spinning top...