After lighting the Hanukkiah, the special menorah for the Festival of Lights, many families play the traditional Hanukkah game with a spinning top. All members of the household, from toddlers to senior citizens, play this simple and fun game together. Playing dreidl is the perfect fun way to celebrate the holiday, create family memories, and strengthen your children’s Jewish identities. In my opinion it’s just one step below eating latkes for a good time. But, from where does this tradition come?

Some people maintain that the dreidl game goes back to the time of the Greek-Syrians, and thus is integrally connected to the Hanukkah holiday. Since the Greek-Syrians prohibited the Jews from studying Torah, the Jews needed a way to hide their Torah learning. They used the dreidl as a decoy. When they saw the Greek-Syrians coming, the Jews would hide their books, take out their dreidls, and trick the Syrians into thinking they were just playing a game.

While this story is a wonderful way to link the holiday's history to its modern celebration, the true source of the game is probably European.

In Europe, a gambling game with a spinning top has been played for centuries by various people in various languages. In England and Ireland, the game of totum or teetotum was first mentioned in approximately 1500. The Germans also liked to play a gambling game with a spinning top. It is believed that the Jewish game of dreidl is a Judaicized version of the German gambling game. The Yiddish word dreidl derived from the German word drehen, which means "to spin."

The letters on the faces of the gambling toy, which were mnemonic for the rules of the game, varied in each nation. The letters on the English spinning top were: T for Take, H for Half, P for Put, N for None. In the German game, the letters were: N for Nichts (nothing), G for Ganz (all), H for Halb (half), S for Stell (put). The Hebrew letters on the dreidl seem to have come directly from the German gambling toy: Nun for Nichts (nothing), Gimel for Ganz (all), Hay for Halb (half), Shin for Stell (put). In an effort to link the game to the celebration of Hanukkah, the Hebrew letters nun, gimel, hay and shin were said to stand for the phrase Nes Gadol Haya Sham, which means "a great miracle happened there."

With the birth of Israel and the revival of the Hebrew language, Israelis called the dreidl a sivivon. Sivivon comes from the Hebrew word sovev which means "to turn." Furthermore, Israelis changed the letter shin on the dreidl to the letter pay. Thus, the letters nun, gimel, hay and pay would stand for the phrase Nes Gadol Haya Po, which means "a great miracle happened here."