Tattoo Mayhem 008

Dreidel dreidel dreidel smokin hot dreidel!

Nun, Nun…Mazal sheli…Ten li Nun

We don’t have any information about this Retro-Flaming Dreidel tattoo or about what it means to it’s bearer and why they chose it or who the artist was so we will just tell you about what we do know. If you do know anything about this tattoo, please contact us so that we may update our information.

The tattoo above is of a “Dreidel” and the word “Dreidel” is a Yiddish word for a spinning top, in coloqueal Yiddish you may have heard your Bubby or Zaide say it once or twice as in,”Don’t ferDREI me a cop” which means: “Don’t make my head go round!” But in the Hebrew language and for Judeans whose familes were exiled to Arab, African and Asian countries for the last 2000 years, the Dreidel was called it’s more authentic Jewish name, “Sevivon” which means a spinning top. The Dreidel or Sevivon are of course associated with the most awsome tradition of Channukah of 2007 and this year it falls on December 4/5 (25th Kislev). The Sevivon is traditionally a four sided spinning top with a Hebrew letter printed on each face. Each of these letters begins a word; The four letters are: Nun – the first letter of the word nes, which means “miracle”; Gimmel – the first letter of gadol, which means “great”; Hey – the first letter of haya, which means “was” and Shin – the first letter of sham, which means “there”. These letters also form a mnemonic for the rules of a gambling game played with a dreidel: Nun stands for the Yiddish word “nit” (‘nothing’), hei stands for “halb” (‘half’), gimel for “gants” (‘all’), and shin for “shteln” (‘put’). In Israel, instead of ? (Shin), the letter ? (Pe) is written to symbolize the location of the miracle ? “??” (Po ? “here”).

No one knows for a fact when the Sevivon was first invented or by whom exactly or whether or not it is an original invention belonging to Am Yisrael which was not likely or whether it was adopted from some other culture because this game is similar in many different cultures. What we do know about it is that it appeared in our long history around 150 BCE or even earlier as a gambling tool used by smart and crafty wandering Judeans up until quite a few hundred years ago when it was sanitized out of popular Jewish culture and relegated as a childrens game to perpetuate the tradition. My personal favorite Sevivon game is strip dreidel.

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