How to
play Dreidl:The dreidl (or "svivon" in Israel) is a four-sided top with which a simple game of chance can be played. Each side is marked with a single Hebrew letter. These letters have a double meaning: on the one hand they stand for the Hebrew phrase Nes Gadol Hayah Sham -- "A great miracle happened there." But they also stand for Yiddish words denoting game instructions! Each player starts with ten or fifteen tokens (peanuts, pennies, raisins, M&M's, those little foil-wrapped chocolate coins -- whatever you want to use). Each player puts one token in the middle. Then each player spins the dreidl in turn and acts according to the letter left facing up when the dreidl falls:
Nun-
Lose a turn, because "Nun" stands for "nisht" in Yiddish, which means
"nothing," so do "nothing."
Gimmel
- Gants means "whole." Take the whole pot.
Heh
- Stands for halb (half) Take half the tokens.
Shin
- Stands for shtel -- "put in." Add to the pot the amount determined at
the beginning of the game.
The game is over when one player has all the tokens.
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