How to Play Dreidel at Hanukkah

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By Lawrence N
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Play Dreidel at Hanukkah

Dreidel is a simple game that Jewish boys and girls like to play at Hanukkah time. It can be played for points or for money. These steps show you how to play the most common variant.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

A dreidel (not necessarily made out of the traditional clay)
10-15 counters of some sort for each player
Two or more players

Step 1

First you'll need to procure a dreidel. A dreidel is basically a spinning top with four sides. Each side has a letter of the Hebrew alphabet on it. The letters form an acronym which represents the phrase, "A great miracle happened there," in reference to the Hanukkah miracle of one day's worth of oil lasting for eight days.
Step 2

To play this game, you'll need two or more players, and an equal number of counters (tokens, beads, chips, etc.) for each player (10-15 for each should work well). Of course if you are playing for money, you could use a particular coin, or dollar bills, or whatever the players agree on. If playing for money, it is customary to donate some of your winnings to charity to help those in need around the holiday time.
Step 3

Each player antes one counter (adds one to the center pot). Choose a starting player to spin the dreidel. One of the letters that it can land on is "nun," pictured at left. This letter represents the Yiddish word for "nothing." If this happens, the player does nothing at all. Play passes to the next player clockwise.
Step 4

Another letter that it could land on is "gimel," pictured at left. Note how similar it looks to the "nun." This letter represents the Yiddish word for "everything." That player takes the entire pot. If the pot is ever empty, or has only one counter, everyone antes one counter again.
Step 5

Another letter that it could land on is "hei," which is sometimes pronounced "het," pictured at left. This letter represents the Yiddish word for half. The player gets half the tokens in the pot, rounded up if there is an odd number.
Step 6

Another letter that it could land on is "shin," pictured at left. This letter represents the Yiddish term for "put in." That player must add a counter to the pot.
Step 7

Play continues clockwise among the players until one player has won all the counters that everyone started with combined. For a shorter game, start each player with fewer counters. Have fun and Mazel Tov! (Good Luck!)

Comments

JanieWrites said

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on 12/24/2008 Now I know -- and I thought it was just a decoration! Thanks for the info.

amylaine said

on 12/18/2008 Learned something new thanks.

AlishaV said

on 12/17/2008 I learned this in elementary school years ago, but didn't remember anything from it other than it was a lot of fun. Great subject for an article!