Interiors & Decorations

Jewellery & Precious Stones

Watches, Pens & Lighters

Fashion

Coins & Stamps

Comics & Animation

Classic Cars, Motorcycles & Automobilia

Wine & Whisky

Asian & Tribal Art

Trading Cards

Toys & Models

Archaeology & Natural History

Sports

Music, Movies & Cameras

Books & Historical Memorabilia

The finest objects brought to you by {name}

Femke Haitsma Mulier

Judaica - A magnificent dreidel - children game for Hanukah Jewish holiday - 

Gold / silver plated

Hand crafted in turkemanistan by a Jewish artist - 1920


A dreidel or dreidl (/ˈdreɪdəl/ DRAY-dəl; Yiddish: דרײדל‎, romanized: dreydl, plural: dreydlekh;[a] Hebrew: סביבון‎, romanized: sevivon) is a four-sided spinning top, played during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.

Each side of the dreidel bears a letter of the Hebrew alphabet: נ (nun), ג (gimel), ה (hei), ש (shin). These letters are translated in Yiddish to a mnemonic for the rules of a gambling game played with a dreidel: Nun stands for the Yiddish word nisht ("nothing"), Gimel for gants ("all"), Hei for halb ("half"), and Shin for shtel ayn ("put in"). However, they represent the Hebrew phrase nes gadol hayah sham ("a great miracle happened there"), referring to the Miracle of the cruse of oil. For this reason, most dreidels in Israel replace the letter Shin with a letter פ (pe), to represent the phrase nes gadol hayah poh ("a great miracle happened here"),[1]; however, many Haredi communities insist that the letter Shin should be used in the Holy Land as well, because the reference to "there" means in the Holy Temple and not in the Land.

While not mandated (a mitzvah) for Hanukkah (the only traditional mitzvot are lighting candles and saying the full hallel), spinning the dreidel is a traditional game played during the holiday.[2]

Astronaut Jeffrey A. Hoffman spun a dreidel for an hour in outer space.[3]

Origins


Ancient Middle Eastern top resembling a dreidel
According to some scholars, the dreidel developed from an Irish or English top introduced into Germany known as a teetotum,[4][5][6][7][8] which was popular around Christmas time[7] and dates back to ancient Greek and Roman times.[6] The teetotum was inscribed with letters denoting the Latin words for “nothing,” “half,” “everything” and “put in.” In German this came to be called a trendel, with German letters for the same concepts. Adapted to the Hebrew alphabet when Jews adopted the game, these letters were replaced by shin (=shtel ayn, put in); nun (=nicht, not, i.e., nothing); gimel (=ganz, whole/everything); and he (=halb, half). The letters served as a means to recalling the rules of the game.[7]

This theory states that when the game spread to Jewish communities unfamiliar with Yiddish, the denotations of the Hebrew letters were not understood. As a result, there arose Jewish traditions to explain their assumed meaning. However, in Judaism there are often multiple explanations developed for words. A popular conjecture had it that the letters abbreviated the words "nes gadol haya sham" (a great miracle happened there), an idea that became attached to dreidels when the game entered into Hanukkah festivities.[9]

According to a tradition first documented in 1890,[5][8][10][11][12] the game was developed by Jews who illegally studied the Torah in seclusion as they hid, sometimes in caves, from the Seleucids under Antiochus IV. At the first sign of Seleucids approaching, their Torah scrolls would be concealed and be replaced by dreidels.[13][14] The variant names goyrl (destiny) and varfl (a little throw) were also current in Yiddish until the Holocaust.[9] In the wake of Zionism, the dreidel was renamed sevivon in modern Hebrew, and the letters altered, with shin generally replaced by pe. This yields the reading nes gadol haya po (a great miracle happened here.')[9]

Etymology


Wooden dreidel
The Yiddish word dreydl comes from the word dreyen ("to turn", compare to drehen, meaning the same in German). The Hebrew word sevivon comes from the Semitic root SBB ("to turn") and was invented by Itamar Ben-Avi (the son of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda) when he was 5 years old. Hayyim Nahman Bialik used a different word, kirkar (from the root KRKR – "to spin"), in his poems,[15] but it was not adopted into spoken Hebrew.

In the lexicon of Ashkenazi Jews from Udmurtia and Tatarstan the local historian A.V. Altyntsev was fixed several other appellations of a dreidel such as volchok, khanuke-volchok, fargl, varfl, dzihe and zabavke.[16]

Symbolism

Some rabbis ascribe symbolic significance to the markings on the dreidel. One commentary, for example, connects the four letters with the four nations to which the House of Judah was historically subject—Babylonia, Persia, Seleucid Empire and Rome.[17] Others claimed the four letters cyphered Babylon, Persia, Greece and the Roman Empire, the four ancient empires that tried to destroy Israel. A gematriya reading yields the number 358, identical to the value of the four letters used to spell "Moshiach" (Messiah).

Rules of the game

Each player begins with an equal number of game pieces (usually 10–15). The game pieces can be any object, such as chocolate gelt, pennies, raisins, etc.

To start the game, every participant puts one game piece into the center "pot". Every player also puts one piece into the pot when the pot is empty or there is only one game piece in the pot.[18]
Each player spins the dreidel once during their turn. Depending on which side is facing up when it stops spinning, the player whose turn it is gives or takes game pieces from the pot:
If נ (nun) is facing up, the player does nothing.
If ג (gimel) is facing up, the player gets everything in the pot.
If ה (hei) is facing up, the player gets half of the pieces in the pot. If there are an odd number of pieces in the pot, the player takes half the pot rounded up to the nearest whole number.
If ש (shin) or פ (pe) is facing up, the player adds one of their game pieces to the pot (sometimes accompanied by the chant "shin, shin, put one in"[19]). In some game versions a Shin results in adding three game pieces to the pot, one for each stem of the letter shin (ש).
If the player is out of pieces, they are either "out" or may ask another player for a "loan".[20]
These rules are comparable to the rules for a classic four-sided teetotum, where the letters A, D, N and T form a mnemonic for the rules of the game, aufer (take), depone (put), nihil (nothing), and totum (all). Similarly, the Hebrew letters on a dreidel may be taken as a mnemonic for the game rules in Yiddish. Occasionally, in the United States, the Hebrew letters on the dreidel form an English-language mnemonic about the rules: Hay or "H" for "half;" Gimel or "G" for "get all;" Nun or "N" for "nothing;" and Shin or "S" for "share".

Analysis

Thomas Robinson and Sujith Vijay have shown that the expected number of spins in a game of dreidel is O(n2), where n is the number of game pieces each player begins with. The implied constant depends on the number of players.[21]

Robert Feinerman has shown that the game of dreidel is "unfair", in that the first player to spin has a better expected outcome than the second player, and the second better than the third, and so on.[22]

Collections


Photo of Most Valuable Dreidel
Childhood enjoyment of dreidels has led to interest in collecting them in adulthood.[23] Jewish institutions such as the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership, Yeshiva University Museum and Temple Emanu-El in New York, house dreidel collections, as do museums such as the Spinning Top and Yo-Yo Museum in Burlington, Wisconsin.[23]

The Guinness World Record for Most Valuable Dreidel[24] was achieved by Estate Diamond Jewelry in November of 2019 and was valued at $70,000. The design of Estate Diamond Jewelry's dreidel was inspired by the Chrysler Building in New York. Previous holders of the title were Chabad of South Palm Beach with a dreidel valued at $14,000.[25]

Tournaments

Dreidel is now a spoof competitive sport in North America. Major League Dreidel (MLD), founded in New York City in 2007, hosts dreidel tournaments during the holiday of Hanukkah. In MLD tournaments the player with the longest time of spin (TOS) is the winner. MLD is played on a Spinagogue, the official spinning stadium of Major League Dreidel. Pamskee was the 2007 MLD Champion. Virtual Dreidel was the 2008 MLD Champion.[26] In 2009, Major League Dreidel launched a game version of the Spinagogue.[27]

In 2009, Good Morning America published a story on Dreidel Renaissance reporting on the rising popularity of the dreidel.[28] Dreidel games that have come out on the market since 2007 include No Limit Texas Dreidel,[29] a cross between traditional dreidel and Texas Hold'em poker, invented by a Judaica company called ModernTribe.[30] Other new dreidel games include Staccabees[31] and Maccabees.[32]

Excellent condition: barely used with minimal signs of wear - 66 g

Dreidel - Gold-plated, Silver - Turkmenistan - Early 20th century

Silver & Gold Decor

Reserve price

No reserve price

Buy now

Closing date

Saturday

tomorrow

Friday

Wednesday

today

Thursday

Sunday

Budget

From

Location

The Netherlands

Italy

Portugal

Spain

Germany

Belgium

Poland

France

United Kingdom

Hungary

Switzerland

United States

Austria

Ireland

Norway

Türkiye

Romania

Greece

Luxembourg

San Marino

Bulgaria

Latvia

Slovenia

Brand

Jean E. Puiforcat

Gerritsen & Van Kempen

Stile Latino

Baccarat

Unsigned

Christofle

Delheid Frères

Hackman

Hermès

Minerva

Object

Spoon

Picture frame

Tray

Cutlery set

Decanter

Vase

Candleholder

Salver

Candlestick

Sugar bowl

Centrepiece

Bowl

Salt and pepper shakers

Figurine

Platter

Jewellery box

Bonbon basket

Fork

Bread basket

Coffee spoon

Cigarette case

Napkin ring

Miniature figurine

Country of origin

Netherlands

Europe

Russia

China

Denmark

Mexico

England

Indonesia

Unknown

Egypt

Israel

Japan

Czechia

Material

Silver

.800 silver

.925 silver

.833 silver

.835 silver

.950 silver

Crystal

.934 silver

.875 (84 Zolotniki) silver

.915 silver

.900 silver

.916 (88 Zolotniki) silver

Gold plated

.830 silver

Steel

Wood

Glass

Bakelite

Silverplated

Gold

Yellow gold

.999 silver

Porcelain

Silver gilt

.935 silver

Gender

Unisex

Condition

Good condition - used with small signs of aging & blemishes

Good condition - used with small signs of ageing

Excellent condition: barely used with minimal signs of wear

As new - unused

Fair condition -  heavily used & with possibly minor parts missing

Very good

Good

Excellent condition

Good condition

Good condition - used with some signs of wear

Good condition, used with some signs of wear

Excellent condition, barely used with minimal signs of wear

Very good condition, slightly used with small signs of wear

Used

Excellent condition - barely used with minimal signs of wear

Very good condition - slightly used with small signs of wear

Fair condition

Period

1850-1900

1960-1970

1950-1960

1930-1940

1920-1930

1970-1980

1940-1950

1910-1920

1900-1910

1980-1990

1800-1850

1990-2000

2010-2020

2000-2010

1700-1750

1750-1800

Early 20th century

Late 20th century

2020+

Late 19th century

Second half 20th century

Certification

No laboratory report

Fineness

9 kt.

14 kt.

18 kt.

Style

Antique

Art Deco

Art Nouveau

Vintage

Contemporary

Empire

Biedermeier

Antique inspired

Mid-century modern

Design

Jugendstil

Arts & Crafts

Biedermeier style

Wiener Secession

Liberty

Minimalist

Baroque

Victorian

Bauhaus

Silver & Gold Decor

This object is no longer available, but there’s still lots to explore

Dreidel - Gold-plated, Silver - Turkmenistan - Early 20th century

868 objects

Related collections

Cookies

Silver & Gold Decor

This object is no longer available, but there’s still lots to explore

Dreidel - Gold-plated, Silver - Turkmenistan - Early 20th century

868 objects

Related collections