It seems silly to celebrate a “religious” holiday gambling…but every year we spend at least one of the eight nights of Hanukah playing dreidel. And it’s not as silly as it seems.
A dreidel is a spinning top with a Hebrew letter on each side. Outside of Israel, the letters are: נ (Nun), ג (Gimmel), ה (Hay) and ש (Shin). These are the initials of the Hebrew phrase “Nes Gadol Haya Sham”, meaning, “A great miracle happened there“. In Israel, the dreidels have : נ (Nun), ג (Gimmel), ה (Hay) and פ (Pey), the initials of the Hebrew phrase, “Nes Gadol Haya Po”. It means “A great miracle happened here.” Depending which letter you land on, you gain or lose a different amount of money (or chocolate coins) with each spin.
This playful tradition reminds us of a time when worshiping the one true God and studying His word was illegal. Jews hid in caves to study scripture. Tradition has it that when soldiers discovered them, they hid the scrolls and pretended to be playing a gambling game. Since devout Jews would never spend their time gambling, this was the perfect cover. Whether it’s historically accurate or notu 0m , this raises some interesting questions:
What’s the “great miracle” ?
What if it was illegal to worship or God or study His word?
The great miracle most people are referring to is the miracle of oil. When the temple was reclaimed after being ransacked by foreign troops, legend says the priests found only one small jar of oil for the temple lampstand. The lamp needed to burn night and day, but the jar only held enough specially prepared oil to last one day. The lamp burned brightly for eight days, until more oil could be purified. But is that the miracle?
Or was the miracle the victory God gave small bands of untrained peasants against a larger, better trained army with better weapons and war elephants?
Still others say the real miracle is that after almost 2,000 years in exile, Jewish people are celebrating these events in Israel. That’s why they say “A great miracle happened here.”
God was at work in all those scenarios, but not just those. So we say, “A great miracle happened here” no matter where we’re celebrating. And we mean it.
I don’t mean to cheapen the idea of miracles or use the word flippantly. But sometimes we don’t see God at work in our lives as often as we could, because we’re not willing to acknowledge His power. When someone prays for me and I’m healed, I call that what it is. When God provides for someone in a way that can’t be explained, I call that what it is.
Hanukkah is a great time to say “A great miracle happened here.” and acknowledge God at work. If you believe God is living and active, it’s a great time to bet your reputation on it.
Knowing God intimately costs something. More and more believers across the globe are making hard choices about living their faith. This question isn’t theoretical for them. It’s already reality. How would your life be different if professing your faith was a crime? What would you be willing to risk?
How much are you willing to bet on a living, active, miracle working God?