Thursday, December 21, 2006
Christians have many beautiful and joyful religious songs to celebrate Christmas, from "Joy to the World" and "O Tannenbaum" to "Silent Night."
But ask most non-Jewish people if they have heard of any traditional songs to mark the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah and it's likely that they've heard of only one, "The Dreidel Song."
If you listen to the words of the song, you might think the only dreidels around are made by children, out of clay. Not so. Some are made of crystal, Lucite, wood, metal, glass and other artistic materials. Some look too delicate or beautiful to spin like a top but many really are made for the job, said Steve Denenberg, of Create-a-Frame/Handworks Gallery in Mt. Lebanon, which carries several styles.
Some dreidels are decorated with seemingly unrelated themes, such as sports, carousels or Noah's ark animals. You might even have to squint to see the Hebrew letters.
An array of unusual dreidels is online at Judaism.com, a site operated by Pinskers Judaica, a Squirrel Hill store that's been selling them since 1954.
This year, Hanukkah began with the lighting of the first candle last Friday at sundown, and ends at sundown Saturday.
The Hanukkah holiday commemorates the Maccabees' victory over the Greek-Syrians and the liberation of Jerusalem about 2,200 years ago.
Although the Syrians, who were idol-worshippers, didn't mind the practical aspects of Judaism and its moral code, "They didn't like this slavish worship of a God that you couldn't see, hear, feel or touch," said Rabbi Mendel Rosenblum, of Chabad of the South Hills.
The victory of the Maccabees is applicable today, he said, because it reminds us that people have the right to practice the respectful, spiritual laws of their religions.
When the Maccabees reclaimed the Jewish temple and set to rededicate it, they found enough oil to light the temple lights for only one day. But it lasted eight days and was considered a miracle.
Dreidels were used during the conflict, when Jews were forbidden to study Torah. They would sneak off to study wherever they could but carried the tops to use as a cover in case they got caught.
Nowadays, dreidel is a game played mostly by children as a way to recall the meaning of the holiday.
"It's a bonding experience," Rabbi Rosenblum said. "It's just one little accent of the holiday."
He said lighting the menorah has more religious significance than the dreidel.
Lighting the menorah, which has slots for eight candles and one extra candle used as a lighter, is so important that Jews in concentration camps during World War II would poke holes in potatoes, fill them with oil and light them as menorahs.
Of course, it would be unlikely that they would risk their lives for the dreidel game, the rabbi said.
The top of a dreidel has four sides, each bearing a Hebrew letter, which stand for the words: "A Great Miracle Happened There."
But secondarily, the letters stand for Yiddish words that explain how the game is played.
The game is played with coins, called gelt, or other objects, such as chocolate pieces, buttons or raisins. Sometimes, the gelt is foil-wrapped chocolate made to look like coins.
Each player starts with the same number of items and each takes a turn spinning the top.
How it lands determines whether he or she gets items from the pot or puts them into the pot.
If the dreidel lands on the letter "nun," the player gets, and loses, nothing. Nothing happens. If the player gets the letter "gimel," the player takes the whole kitty. The letter "hay" means the player takes half the kitty and "shin" means the player must put one item into the kitty.
Play continues until someone loses all his or her items and then that person is out.
It keeps going until one person is left or until everyone is so tired they give up and start eating the chocolate coins.
Winners sometimes donate part of their cash winnings to tzedakah, or charity.
Want to play with a virtual dreidel? Try www.jewfaq.org/dreidel/index.htm.
Also, check out Chabad of the South Hills' Hanukkah Mega Site at www.chabadsh.com/ or judiasm.com.
(Laura Pace can be reached at lpace@post-gazette.com or 412-851-1867. )
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