How to Draw Dreidel Symbols

The dreidel is used during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

The dreidel is a spinning top that is used in a game of the same name during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. The game requires players to take turns spinning the dreidel and take money from or deposit money into a central pot, depending on the symbol that turns up. The symbols, in fact, are Hebrew letters: nun, gimmel, hay and shin. They stand for the Hebrew phrase "Nes gadol hayah sham," or "A great miracle happened there," referring to the miracle of Hanukkah. Drawing these Hebrew letters is quite simple with a few basic tips.

Instructions

1. Draw the basic outline of the letter nun. Imagine you are drawing a staple open to the left, with the top side angled upward at 45 degrees. Draw a diamond with rounded edges around this top side so that it looks like a leaf or a teardrop. Fill it in. Fatten the lower side by filling it out roughly 1/3 of the way up the spine. To make it more stylish, lop off the outward-facing side of the lower section at a 45-degree angle facing inward. Fill out the spine by fattening it slightly.

2. Draw the letter gimmel. The gimmel is exactly like the nun but is missing a small section near the bottom-right corner. Draw the nun with a small line missing just next to the spine from the bottom, going most of the way up through the lower section. This line should make the gimmel resemble a high-heeled shoe.

3. Draw the basic shape of the hay. The hay looks like the mathematical symbol for pi, with a straight top, but with the left branch disconnected from the top. Fatten the top section and give it rounded sides. Fatten the two branches about half as much as the top.

4. Draw the shin. It slightly resembles an English "W" or a candelabra. Draw a "W" but with a flat bottom, and with the two right branches angled to the right. On the top of each branch, draw a diamond with rounded edges, similar to that in the nun. Fatten the bottom section and give it rounded sides.

References

• Chanukah on the Net: The Dreidle (Dreidel)

Resources

• My Jewish Learning: The Origin of the Dreidel