The dreidel (Yiddish) is a four-sided top used to play a simple game of chance. Each side of the top has a different Hebrew letter on it.
Outside of Israel, dreidels have the letters nun, gimel, hay, and shin. These represent “Nes Gadol Haya Sham” which means “a great miracle happened there.”
The letters have other meanings as well. They stand for the Yiddish words that tell the instructions of the game.
The dreidel also represents the four kingdoms, Babylon, Persian, Greece and Rome spinning around the centre (the Jewish people).
We have provided instructions and a template to make your own dreidel from card, as well as detailed instructions for playing the game.
Spinning tops, dreidels by Marina Shemesh via Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA 2.0.
