I've seen it a few times as a symbol of Judaism, its a wooden acorn shaped object with four sides(i think) and a pointy tip, it has Hebrew letters on each side, and there is a small stick (handle?) attached from its the top? does any of that sound familiar? what is it called and what is it used for?
2007-02-05 13:27:12 · 13 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
It is a dreidel. It was used at the time of the oppression by Antiochus, by Jewish children who were forbidden to study the Torah (Old Testament). They would play with the dreidel whenever the Roman soldiers were near. When the soldiers went away, they could go back to reading the Torah.
The game is simple to play and it is played with chocolate coins today at the time of Chanukkah (Usually December).
Playing the dreidel, a gambling game played with a square top: Most people play for matchsticks, pennies, M&Ms or chocolate coins. The traditional explanation of this game is that during the time of Antiochus' oppression, those who wanted to study Torah (an illegal activity) would conceal their activity by playing gambling games with a top (a common and legal activity) whenever an official or inspector was within sight.
A dreidel is marked with four Hebrew letters: Nun, Gimmel, Heh and Shin. These letters stand for the Hebrew phrase "Nes Gadol Hayah Sham", a great miracle happened there, referring to the miracle of the oil.
The letters also stand for the Yiddish words nit (nothing), gantz (all), halb (half) and shtell (put), which are the rules of the game! There are some variations in the way people play the game, but the way I learned it, everyone puts in one coin. A person spins the dreidel. If it lands n Nun, nothing happens; on Gimmel (or, as we called it as kids, "gimme!"), you get the whole pot; on Heh, you get half of the pot; and on Shin, you put one in. When the pot is empty, everybody puts one in. Keep playing until one person has everything. Then redivide it, because nobody likes a poor winner.
2007-02-05 13:36:18 · answer #1 · answered by Gary D 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
A dreidel (sivivon in Hebrew) is used as a game during Hanukkah. You spin the dreidel and depending on what side it lands on, you either add pieces to the pot, take half the pot, take all the pot, or do nothing.
To add to Gary's very good answer, in the Diaspora the words are "a great miracle happened there" while in Israel the words are "a great miracle happened here" with the shin substituted for pey.
2007-02-05 13:33:25 · answer #2 · answered by LadySuri 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
God stated to Moses that his call is 'i'm' written in Hebrew as YHWH. The Jews have faith that this call is in basic terms too holy to be spoken so they say 'HaShem' (the call) or 'Adonai' (Lord) as a replace whilst examining scripture. As written Hebrew has no vowels, the unique pronunciation of YHWH became into lost. It became into transliterated into German as 'Jehovah' using the vowels from 'Adonai', in spite of the incontrovertible fact that, cutting-side scholars have faith it would in all probability have been reported 'Yahweh' as there are cases in the Hebrew scriptures the place it relatively is been shortened to 'Yah' and this has additionally been used for components of names. As no person knew a thank you to pronounce the call, and for this reason did no longer be attentive to a thank you to jot down it with English characters, we copied the Jewish custom of substituting it with Adonai/Lord, in spite of the incontrovertible fact that it relatively is capitalised in the Bible so which you would be able to tell that it relatively is the place the call seems in Hebrew, simply by fact the notice 'Adonai' seems in some places in the Hebrew scriptures.
2016-10-01 12:00:53 · answer #3 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Do you mean the driedel which is a symbol of Hanukkah? That is the only thing that comes to my mind from your description.
2007-02-05 13:31:34 · answer #4 · answered by Rosy 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made it out of clay, dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, with dreidel I shall play.
It's a Hanukkah toy used in a game.
2007-02-05 13:37:28 · answer #5 · answered by The World Ends with You 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It sounds like a dreidel, which is a toy Jewish kids play with during the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah).
Here's a link showing a pic of one. I hope it's what you're looking for.
http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%3Fp%3Ddreidel%2Bimage%26ei%3DUTF-8&h=121&w=101&imgcurl=www.bimbibo.it%2Fimages%2Fstories%2Fdreidel.jpg&imgurl=www.bimbibo.it%2Fimages%2Fstories%2Fdreidel.jpg&size=2.9kB&name=dreidel.jpg&rcurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bimbibo.it%2Fsections.php%3Fop%3Dprintpage%26artid%3D55&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bimbibo.it%2Fsections.php%3Fop%3Dprintpage%26artid%3D55&p=dreidel&type=jpeg&no=2&tt=14%2C728&fr=ytff1-
2007-02-05 13:32:25 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
it's a dreidel .some sort of toy like a top or something.
2007-02-05 13:49:37 · answer #7 · answered by ♥ Zoey ♥ 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A dradel? (Not sure i got the spelling) The thing to play that game with?
2007-02-05 13:30:18 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋
Here is a picture at wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreidel
grace2u
2007-02-05 13:35:46 · answer #9 · answered by Theophilus 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
lol sounds like a dradle to me... i know its used as part of game but idr
2007-02-05 13:30:58 · answer #10 · answered by night_fox51 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋