A new spin on dreidel - “You have to believe to see”
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I’m awful at dreidel. I don’t know if there’s anyone else in the world who could be as bad at dreidel as I am. Seriously, my hand just cannot spin a top. And yet, these lovely children of mine always want to humiliate their mother by including me in this game. Or, is it their dreidel-playing, super-star father who puts them up to it?
I still have a few days to master this once and for all. I’m sure there’s a tutorial on YouTube.
How does it spin? It has no leg to stand on. It can’t spin on its own. Someone spins it from above. It doesn’t stand or spin with its own strength. It does so only by the strength of the person who spins it.
We play dreidel during the eight nights of Chanukah as we celebrate the miracles that happened then and, hopefully, the ones that happen to us now. I do. I try to see and celebrate the hand of G-d in my life, not just on Chanukah but on a daily basis. But not everyone shares my excitement for “miracle stories.” Someone once told me, “Sounds like a bubbe-meisa!” She wasn’t entirely mistaken.
Some say you have to see to believe. I say you have to believe to see.
If you believe it’s a bubbe-meisa, then it will be. Because the kinds of stories that happen to me, and to the believer, will not be happening to you. Guaranteed.
That’s the way belief and trust in G-d works. The minute you put your belief and trust in the power of your own hand, or of any other entities’ hands (client, investor, boss, officer, etc. etc.), G-d will hide His Divine revelation from your life and leave you at the mercy of those natural forces and agents. “Zay gezunt!” says the Boss Above.
We, just like the dreidel, can’t stand or spin on our own. There’s a Creator enlivening us, and everything around us at every single moment. There’s nothing that’s happening in our lives that isn’t being orchestrated from Above. To believe we have any independent existence? That is the bubbe-meisa. Believe it if you want.
Even I, whose dreidel spins flop within half-a-second, know that when the dreidel is spinning, no one can read the letters. When the dreidel stops and falls, we read the Hebrew letters that stand for “A great miracle happened there.”
Similarly, we are caught up in the treadmill of life, busy and self-absorbed. So self-absorbed that we can go through life without recognizing the miracles G-d performs for us. “When I see it, I’ll believe it.”
Maybe you should take that for a spin. Believe first and you’ll see it.
The numerical value of the dreidel’s nun, gimmel, hey and shin is 358. This is the same numerical value as the Hebrew letters that make the word Moshiach. Indeed, Moshiach will be a time when we all believe and see with tremendous clarity the Hand that spins it all. And that’s no bubbe-meisa!
Yael Trusch is the creator of the bilingual Jewish lifestyle blog and podcast, Jewish Latin Princess. She is an influencer, communicator and promoter of “a joyful, richer Jewish life.” A renowned international speaker, Trusch captivates a diverse audience of Jewish women with her honest, relatable, yet profound approach to Jewish life. You can reach her at [email protected].
I still have a few days to master this once and for all. I’m sure there’s a tutorial on YouTube.
How does it spin? It has no leg to stand on. It can’t spin on its own. Someone spins it from above. It doesn’t stand or spin with its own strength. It does so only by the strength of the person who spins it.
We play dreidel during the eight nights of Chanukah as we celebrate the miracles that happened then and, hopefully, the ones that happen to us now. I do. I try to see and celebrate the hand of G-d in my life, not just on Chanukah but on a daily basis. But not everyone shares my excitement for “miracle stories.” Someone once told me, “Sounds like a bubbe-meisa!” She wasn’t entirely mistaken.
Some say you have to see to believe. I say you have to believe to see.
If you believe it’s a bubbe-meisa, then it will be. Because the kinds of stories that happen to me, and to the believer, will not be happening to you. Guaranteed.
That’s the way belief and trust in G-d works. The minute you put your belief and trust in the power of your own hand, or of any other entities’ hands (client, investor, boss, officer, etc. etc.), G-d will hide His Divine revelation from your life and leave you at the mercy of those natural forces and agents. “Zay gezunt!” says the Boss Above.
We, just like the dreidel, can’t stand or spin on our own. There’s a Creator enlivening us, and everything around us at every single moment. There’s nothing that’s happening in our lives that isn’t being orchestrated from Above. To believe we have any independent existence? That is the bubbe-meisa. Believe it if you want.
Even I, whose dreidel spins flop within half-a-second, know that when the dreidel is spinning, no one can read the letters. When the dreidel stops and falls, we read the Hebrew letters that stand for “A great miracle happened there.”
Similarly, we are caught up in the treadmill of life, busy and self-absorbed. So self-absorbed that we can go through life without recognizing the miracles G-d performs for us. “When I see it, I’ll believe it.”
Maybe you should take that for a spin. Believe first and you’ll see it.
The numerical value of the dreidel’s nun, gimmel, hey and shin is 358. This is the same numerical value as the Hebrew letters that make the word Moshiach. Indeed, Moshiach will be a time when we all believe and see with tremendous clarity the Hand that spins it all. And that’s no bubbe-meisa!
Yael Trusch is the creator of the bilingual Jewish lifestyle blog and podcast, Jewish Latin Princess. She is an influencer, communicator and promoter of “a joyful, richer Jewish life.” A renowned international speaker, Trusch captivates a diverse audience of Jewish women with her honest, relatable, yet profound approach to Jewish life. You can reach her at [email protected].