Miketz Gen.
41:1 - 44:17
When studying halacha, Jewish law, you will find that most of the laws relating to Chanukah are related to the lighting of the menorah, or chanukiyah. Everything else we do to celebrate this holiday is simply a custom. The main difference between laws and customs is that laws stem from rabbinic interpretation of the Torah and Talmud which then filter down to the people. Conversely, customs start with the people and filter up to the rabbis. Through our customs, we show our love for God and tradition and, ultimately, enrich the Jewish experience.
I thought on this Shabbat Chanukah I would share some explanation of one of these customs: the playing of dreidl. The dreidl (Yiddish) or s’vivon (Hebrew) is surely one of the most famous customs associated with Chanukah. Throughout our history, rabbis and other figures have tried to find a connection between the dreidl and the Chanukah story. The common explanation is that the four letters that appear on the dreidl - nun, gimel, hay, shin - stand for “Nes Gadol Hayah Sham”, or “A Great Miracle Happened There.” (The miracle is not that of the oil lasting eight days. The miracle occurred when the Maccabees, a small band of Jewish warriors, were able to overcome the Greco-Syrians and win back their religious freedom.) One nineteenth century rabbi explained that the Jews played with the dreidl in order to fool the Greeks if they were caught studying Torah which was outlawed. Others have played with gematria, Hebrew numerology, to find some significance to this game. For instance, the letters of the dreidl have the numerical equivalent of 358, the same numerical equivalent as Mashiach, or Messiah. Others have explained that the letters represent the four kingdoms which tried to destroy us: Nebuchadnetzar, Haman, Gog, and Seir.
In reality, as is often the case, these explanations all came after the fact. The dreidl game originally had nothing to do with Chanukah. It was simply a game that was played by various people in various cultures for centuries. Around the 1500s, a game emerges in England and Ireland called “totum”, from the Latin meaning “all”. By 1720, the game was called T-totum and the letters represented four words in English: T=Take all, H=Half, P=Put down, and N=Nothing. Our Eastern European game of dreidl (including the Hebrew letters we use) is based on the German equivalent of the game: N=Nichts, G=Ganz, H=Halb, and S=Stell ein. In German, the spinning top was called a torrel or trundle, but in Yiddish it was called dreidl. It was not until Hebrew was revived as a spoken language that we came to hear the name s’vivon.
Rabbi David Golinkin notes that the dreidl game represents an irony of Jewish history. In order to celebrate the holiday of Chanukah which celebrates our victory over cultural assimilation, we play the dreidl game which is an excellent example of cultural assimilation! Of course, there is a world of difference between imitating non-Jewish games and worshipping idols, but irony remains nonetheless.
May the laws and customs we follow on this Chanukah help us to enrich our lives and bring light into this season of darkness.
Shabbat Shalom and Chag Urim Sameach!
Cantor Korn
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