"Nun" stands for "nisht" which means "nothing." The player wins nothing.
"Gimmel" stands for "gantz" which means "all." The player wins the entire pot.
"Hey" stands for "halb" which means "half." The player wins half the pot. If there is an odd number of tokens, the player takes the extra token.
"Shin" stands for "shtel" which means "put in." The player must put two of his own tokens in the pot.
Everyone ready? Let's divvy up the chocolate (or nuts, or candy, or pennies -- but I prefer to play for chocolate ). Now each person puts two in the middle. Now spin!
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Oh, Awesome! My kid's been begging me to make a dreidel with him (we're not Jewish, but he learned a lot about Hanukkah this year in school) and I've been too lazy to look up the letters and what they mean. *grin*
"I had a little dreidel...I made it out of clay..."
So cool, thanks rivka!
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I should perhaps explain that the Yiddish "meanings" of the letters for the game is secondary. The letters are actually an acrostic -- Nes Gadol Hayah Sham, a great miracle happened there. (In Israel, dreidels have a pay (for Poh, here) instead of a shin.
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