Historic Background

The ancient art of playing dreidel has existed for a few thousand years. Tradition tells us that the playing of the dreidel originated even before the revolt against the Greeks. The Greeks forbade the Jews from studying Torah. The Rabbis took their students "underground" and posted two or three students outside to watch. When the Greek soldiers came to see if Torah was been taught, they would see children playing outside with the dreidel. Seeing the children playing and not learning, the Greek soldiers would go away content that Torah was not being studied. In this way the tradition of studying Torah was preserved, and thus started the tradition of playing the dreidel at Chanukah.

How to Play

The rules of playing this game are relatively simple. After lighting the Chanukah candles, (and waiting for the latkes) you must empty out all of the small change that you have in your pocket. Give a large amount to your children. (Small change is used, since men who have children generally lose the big change to the better half). After distributing the change among the participants, you are ready to begin to play the game. To start the game, each player puts one coin in the pot located on the table (unless you are playing on the floor) The person that has the loudest voice or has already grabbed the dreidel begins to spin the dreidel. The dreidel has four Hebrew letters embellished on the side. When the dreidel, stops spinning and falls, the letter facing up indicates the fate of the spinner as noted below.