Dreidel

A dreidel (Yiddish: דרײדלdreydl plural: dreydlekh,[1] Hebrew: סביבון‎Sevivon) is a four-sided spinning top, played with 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), which together form the acronym for "נסגדולהיהשם" (Nes GadolHayah Sham – "a great miracle happened there"). These letters also form a mnemonic for the rules of a gambling game played with a dreidel: Nun stands for the Yiddishword nisht ("nothing"), Hei stands for halb ("half"), Gimel for gants ("all"), and Shin for shtel arayn ("put in"). In Israel, the fourth side of most dreidels is inscribed with the letter פ (Pei), rendering the acronym, נסגדולהיהפה, Nes Gadol Hayah Poh—"A great miracle happened here" referring to the miracle occurring in the land of Israel. Some stores in Haredi neighbourhoods sell the ש dreidels.