Learn

Children are given a special toy called a dreidel to play with during the long winter nights of Hanukkah. The dreidel is a four-sided top. Each of the 4 sides has a Hebrew letter inscribed on it. The letters translate to our N, G, H and S and stand for “Nes Gadol Haya Sham” which means “A great miracle happened there,” referring to the oil that burned for 8 nights at the Temple in Jerusalem so many eons ago.

The Hebrew letters marked on the 4 sides of the dreidel later came to stand for the rules of the dreidel game in German-Yiddish, a language spoken by most of the Jews in Europe and Russia.

Here’s how to play:

The game is usually played with candy or nuts. In case you don’t have those around, you can play for points. Each player is given a few candies or nuts and the rest are placed at the center of the playing area. Each person gets a turn to spin the dreidel. When the dreidel stops spinning and lands, the letter on top determines what that player has to do.

N stands for nisht in Yiddish, or “nothing”. You do nothing. If you are playing for points, you get none.

G stands for ganz, or “all”. Take all the nuts or candy from the middle or give yourself 20 points.

H stands for halb, or “half”. Take half of what is in the middle plus one if there is an odd number of items or give yourself 5 points.

S stands for shtel, or “put in”. Put 2 items into the middle or subtract two points.

When all the nuts or candies are gone from the middle, the game is over. The person with the most nuts, candies or points wins the game.