Spinning Tops

A dreidel is a four-sided spinning top, used during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.  Probably influenced by a medieval German game, the top has a different Hebrew letter on each side: nun, gimmel, heh, shin. The common usage today is to represent the first letters of the phrase nes gadol hayah sham, “a great miracle happened there,” referring to the long-lasting container of oil in the Hanukkah story. With the emergence of the State of Israel, the final Hebrew letter was changed to po, and the translation is “a great miracle happened here.”   

Sterling silver, enamel

H 40 X DMI 35 mm