How is the dreidel used?
The dreidel is used in a customary game during the holiday and is no highly associated with Hanukkah.
The players begin with an equal number of game pieces like chocolate gelt, pennies, or raisins. You take turns spinning the dreidel during your turn. Then, depending on which side is facing up, you can give or take pieces from the pot.
- Nun (נ) – do nothing
- Gimel (ג) – take everything in the pot
- Hei (ה) – take half the pieces in the pot
- Shin (ש) or Pei (פ) – add game pieces to the pot
If you are out of pieces, you can either be out or ask another player for a loan.
A dreidel is a little spinning top with four sides. Each of the four sides has a Hebrew letter that corresponds to the saying “A Great Miracle Happened There,” where “there” refers to Israel (Fun fact: in Israel, the dreidels say “A Great Miracle Happened Here”). There is a gambling game you can play with it where each of the letters stands for the amount of coins you win. The story has it that when Jews were not allowed to practice their religion, they kept a dreidel handy and pretended to be playing this game whenever they were in fear of getting caught. Were you concerned about differences in faith backgrounds when you chose to come to Wake Forest? I was a little worried about religious differences. I knew that Wake Forest was historically a Baptist school, and I was unsure if that would make it uncomfortable as a Jewish student. When I entered as a freshman, I had a friend from home that was a junior, and also Jewish. She helped me out immensely through my first two years on campus
