This is a dreidle. One that we purchased in the late 1960s on Devon Avenue in Chicago. It is six sided. Israeli because it has a peh for poh. A great miracle happened here.
The “extra sides” have a menorah on them and the way I remember it, if you land on that, you get to spin again.
This year I was selected to be a principal for the day in U-46. I was at O’Neal, not far from here. I learned lots that day watching the principal, Marcie Marzullo, and her team. She greeted every student by name in the hall at the beginning of school. Her door is open, always, on two sides. She uses a standing desk. And she is visible, a lot of the day. I learned about the Legend of Old Befana, but that is a story for another time.
Together we visited most of the classrooms. I danced to the Nutcracker with a parachute in Miss Lila’s music class. I taught “Albuquerque is a Turkey” in a kindergarten cl ass. What the principal really wanted me to do is teach about Chanukah in her first grade classes. There were four dual language first grades. I chose a simple book, A Turn For Noah, about celebrating Chanukah in school and being frustrated that his turn to light the menorah hadn’t happened. Like Jewish parents in many schools, I brought dreidles for each child, so every child would have a turn to spin.
In the very first class, the teacher excitedly went to her desk to show us all what she called a “Tomo Todo”, a top that has the Spanish words for the rules of the dreidle game on each of the six sides. The kids immediately saw the connection. For me, it was breath-taking.
Elgin is 47% Hispanic. Every year I have a couple of people come to my office to discuss their possible Jewish roots. Someone might light candles on Friday. Some one might have the tradition of fasting on some day in September. Others have never eaten pork or only eat flat bread at Easter. Earlier in the year the CKI book group read Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean, that illustrates how Jews arrived in the New World, all the way back to Columbus. The Jerusalem Post featured a story that 25% of Hispanics and Latinos may have Jewish DNA. https://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Genetic-research-almost-25-percent-of-Latinos-Hispanics-have-Jewish-DNA-581959
There are other books as well. Kveller recently featured a story about the book Recipes of My 15 Grandmothers, about a woman who was born in Cuba in a Catholic family and can now trace her roots all the way back to pre-Spanish Inquisition Spain. She has now formally converted to Judaism and I am reading her other book, My 15 Grandmothers.
So what is this top? Is it a dreidle or just as the other name in Spanish, La Pirinola?
The history of the dreidle is shielded in some mystery. It was most likely a gambling game that the rabbis sanctioned that when they were not allowed to teach Torah openly during the Roman occupation, they could teach the miracle of Chanukah. “A great miracle happened there.” La Pirinola also has a history dating back to ancient Rome. https://www.spanishplayground.net/toma-todo-game-la-pirinola/
This site will also give you a translation of the words and a stencil with which you can make your own tomo todo, pirinola.
The earliest Pirinola in Central America seem to date to the early 1500s. Were these really dreidles used by “hidden Jews” to celebrate Chanukah? Who knows? But it is interesting to speculate about. I am most grateful to that teacher at O’Neal for introducing me to the Tomo Todo.
Learning about how to celebrate Chanukah in Latin America has proven to be interesting. A more quiet affair than here in the United States, celebrations feature a piñata shaped like a dreidle (one of which Peg, Simon and I made for our Oneg Shabbat table), fried food of various sorts and lighting the menorah. On the sixth night, which is tonight, there is also a special celebration of Rosh Hodesh, the new month. Luna Nueva. The Hanukkah Moon, which is now the name of another Chanukah children’s book.
It seemed especially apt to talk about Rosh Hodesh this year. The codes are very clear. It is not only permissible but encouraged for women to light Chanukah candles. In fact the codes go on to say that But this year one of the chief rabbis in Israel declared it is not. Rosh Hodesh is a half-holiday for women and the Talmud clearly states in Shabbat 23a, for Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: The [mitzva of the] Chanukah candle is obligatory upon women, for they too were part of that miracle. In fact in later codes, women are exempt from working while the Chanukah candles are burning.
Later in the service, when our music director played his lovely setting of Ahavat Olam that leads into the Sh’ma, the proclamation that G-d is one, I had goosebumps. I listened to his playing which has often sounded like a heart beat to me, and I realized that the Maccabees had fought for that very right to sing the Sh’ma. To not go underground. That is what the dreidle and la pirinola are really about. Not being hidden. Being able to practice our Judaism wherever we are. In Israel, in ancient Rome, or right here in Elgin. May this be a season of light and proud visibility, no longer hidden, like the history of the dreidle.