The origins of the dreidle game are said to lie with the students of Rabbi Akiva. The Greek rulers had outlawed the study of Torah. The study of Torah was made into a capital offence punishable by the death of the transgressor. The students persisted in their studies at considerable risk.

To ensure that they would be able to study peacefully and safely, the students were equipped with a dreidle. A lookout would provide an early warning when Greek soldiers were approaching. They would hide their books and play with the dreidles. All the Greeks would find was a group of young men playing an innocent gambling game with a four sided top.

Others have ascribed the origin of the game to the era of the Maccabees. Yet others ascribe the origin of the dreidle game to a medieval gambling game called totum. The German version of this game has the same letters on the four sides: Nun for Nichts (nothing), Gimel for Ganz (all), Hay for Halb (half), Shin for Stell (put). More information can me found at What is the source of the dreidel on Judaism.com.

Hanukkah is an ancient festival celebrated for eight days during the Hebrew month of Kislev. The festival commemorates the rededication of the Holy Temple after its desecration by the Syrian-Greek Empire.

The main focus of the festival is on lighting the Hanukkah menorah, reminding us of the miracle of the oil. When the Temple was recaptured, there was only enough oil to burn in the Temple Menorah for one day. It would take eight days for fresh oil to be prepared and consecrated, but the oil burned for eight days.

Somewhere along the line, the dreidle (or sevivon in Hebrew) became a permanent feature of Hanukkah. Perhaps it is the letters imprinted on the dreidle that make the connection.

A dreidel is a four sided spinning top. Each side displays a Hebrew letter. These letters are Nun, Gimmel, Hey and Shin, the first letters of the words "Nes Gaddol Hayah Sham" or "A great miracle happened there." In Israel, the Shin is substituted by a Pe for "Po" which changes the meaning to "A great miracle happened here."

The game requires four players. Counters (or similar) to play the game are distributed equally amongst all of the players. The counters could be pennies, chocolates or candy.

Before each spin, each player places one bet into the pot. The first player spins. The side of the dreidle facing up determines the outcome.

Each letter results in a different outcome.

> Nun - the player gets nothing

> Gimmel - the player takes the entire pot

> Hey - the player take half of the pot

> Shin - the player contributes another stake to the pot.

The player that accumulates the most is the winner.

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