Advantage dreidel

[Automatic Monkey]

All right, I'm invited to a party on the 25th.

Not December 25th, but 25 Kislev. (Yes, Hannukah does fall on the 25th, every year.) So I might go, and the kids are going to play the dreidel game.

Now dreidel is a gambling game, and the way it is normally played, nobody has an advantage. But we AP's can take care of that problem, and I'd like to separate the little rodents from their gelt. Does anybody know a way to make a dreidel give up the gimels?

And does anybody know if you can go to Hell for this?

 

[shadroch]

Jews don't believe in hell, so who cares.

 

[bjcount]

All right, I'm invited to a party on the 25th.

Not December 25th, but 25 Kislev. (Yes, Hannukah does fall on the 25th, every year.) So I might go, and the kids are going to play the dreidel game.

Now dreidel is a gambling game, and the way it is normally played, nobody has an advantage. But we AP's can take care of that problem, and I'd like to separate the little rodents from their gelt. Does anybody know a way to make a dreidel give up the gimels?

And does anybody know if you can go to Hell for this?

Put on a yalmulke, thank g-d that the oil lasted 8 days instead of 1, put a few bucks in the sudakah box, and just maybe, in the words of an AP, you'll receive some +EV.

Shadroch correct, there is no hell, only heaven. :angel:

Funny thing though, 5,768 years later, it's still about oil

BJC

 

[21forme]

Careful, if you're not circumcised, it may fall off!

 

[Brock Windsor]

All right, I'm invited to a party on the 25th.

Not December 25th, but 25 Kislev. (Yes, Hannukah does fall on the 25th, every year.) So I might go, and the kids are going to play the dreidel game.

Now dreidel is a gambling game, and the way it is normally played, nobody has an advantage. But we AP's can take care of that problem, and I'd like to separate the little rodents from their gelt. Does anybody know a way to make a dreidel give up the gimels?

And does anybody know if you can go to Hell for this?

Depending on the house rules there may be a dreidel provided for each player as opposed to a single dreidel passed about. If that is the case (or you can bring your own) test out each dreidel before you pick yours. If it is more prone to landing on gimmel due to the dreidel being non-random, then that's the dreidel you want to grab. Another common 'house error' is to start after saying "who wants to go first" as opposed to having a proper spin-off to be first to act. If your party acts in this manner be adamant that you will be first to go as this will provide you the most chances at the pot. Depending on the size of the starting pot it may likely be in your interest to see if you can buy first spin for a coin or two. I have it on good authority you will not go to Hell for this PROVIDED you believe is God's one and only son. Whoever that is.
BW

 

[Thunder]

Automatic, I'm shocked that you of all people are invited to a Hanukkah party given your publicly displayed disdain for Jews. Why you would want to cheat in a game that is supposed to just be for fun or some chocolate is beyond me but I am actually in possession of a dreidel I made as a little kid that does land on gimmel 80% of the time. And fyi, with lots of practice you can consistently win in dreidel even with an equally weighted one. It's sort of like craps, take a lot of practice

 

[Automatic Monkey]

Automatic, I'm shocked that you of all people are invited to a Hanukkah party given your publicly displayed disdain for Jews.

What? According to ZG I'm a rabid Zionist. You must be confusing me with another monkey. I've not only been to Hanukkah parties, I've read from the Haggadah at Pesach.

Why you would want to cheat in a game that is supposed to just be for fun or some chocolate is beyond me but I am actually in possession of a dreidel I made as a little kid that does land on gimmel 80% of the time. And fyi, with lots of practice you can consistently win in dreidel even with an equally weighted one. It's sort of like craps, take a lot of practice

So let's get this straight- you don't think we should cheat at dreidel or control dreidel spins, but you just happen to own a crooked dreidel that you've taken stats on? That's just dandy. Do you know anything about rigging church bingo games?

 

[bjcount]

So let's get this straight- you don't think we should cheat at dreidel or control dreidel spins, but you just happen to own a crooked dreidel that you've taken stats on? That's just dandy. Do you know anything about rigging church bingo games?

:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::whip: lmfao...

 

[callipygian]

And does anybody know if you can go to Hell for this?

Of all the things you've done in life, you pick dreidel games as the most likely event to cause you eternal damnation?

 

[Thunder]

I made that dreidel before I even knew what cheating was! If you really feel the urge to get the advantage during some hanukkah games, why not attend some of those hanukkah casino nights they have at your local shul where there is no heat, blackjack pays 2:1, dealers who don't know the first thing about dealing, and you can win nice prizes like a 42 inch flat screen tv.

 

[FLASH1296]

The road to hell is paved with dreidel mechanics.​

Note: Hebrew references to Hell:


The 1611 edition of the King James Bible uses the word "Hell" numerous times, but subsequent versions, even the New King James Bible, tend to replace it with more appropriate approximations of the original Greek or Hebrew terms. If you do your Biblical scholarship, you’ll see that the Hebrew Ge-hinnom (Gehanna) and Sheol, as well as the Greek Hades, are all equated with Hell in various translations. This brings up an interesting consideration: Since the translators were attempting to convey meaning, we should look at the references of those Hebrew and Greek words. At the same time, we need to pursue the etymology of the English word "Hell" separately, which means staying closer to the sound value of the word and following its Germanic trajectory. What’s remarkable is that the routes of inquiry intertwine to form a historical cross section of Hell as both word and concept.

Let me begin with Hades, since its equation with "Hell" makes sense in both meaning and etymology. Hades, from the Greek, literally means "unseen," which explains its use to refer to the nether world of the dead (the "shades") and the presiding god, Hades. Hades happens to be the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Sheol, also meaning "unseen" (which occurs 65 times in the Bible; the original King James version only translates it as "Hell" 31 times). Although the initial referent of the Hebrew and Greek words are the same, it is important to note that while the Greeks had built a complex nether world mythology around the word Hades, the Hebrew Sheol does not share those associations.

Gehanna, another Greek form of a Hebrew word, occurs a dozen times in the New Testament with a meaning that -- at first -- seems to reflect our current notion of Hell. (In fact, Christ uses the term several times in a rather critical context.) Gehanna comes from the Hebrew ge-hinnom, which means "Valley of Hinnom." This valley is probably the most hellish of the Biblical references, since it was there that the old Israelites offered up their children as burnt sacrifices on the altars of Baal. In the Old Testament, the prophet Jeremiah warns that this valley will be called the "Valley of Slaughter" (Jer 7:30-33). The prophecy was fulfilled quite literally in 70 A.D. during the bloody destruction of Jerusalem.

The irony of Gehanna is that, during the time of Christ, it was Jerusalem’s garbage dump, quite similar to today’s landfills -- probably full of pits and smoldering flames from burning refuse. For a Jew, who would have been much concerned with proper burial, to be relegated to Gehanna after death would have been a truly hellish fate, but it is certainly not the fiery pit we imagine as the place of eternal damnation. Jonathan Edwards, best known for his Hellfire-and-Damnation imagery in "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" would have been rather disappointed with the original Gehanna.

According to some etymologists, the English word "Hell" comes from the Indo-European root, kel, which means "cover" or "hide" (the K and the aspirated H sounds are related). Because of the fluctuation of vowel sounds, kel is the origin of both "hall" (a covered or sheltered place) and "hell" (a hidden place, related to the unseen Sheol and Hades). In Anglo-Saxon, hel has the same underlying meaning.

But another direct link to the English "Hell" -- particularly considering the German influence on Protestantism -- are the Germanic and Greek hel. This is where things become curious, and this is where the Biblical scholars tend not to tread, because the root meaning of hel is clearly related to light. In Greek, hel is the root for words like Helios (the sun god), and Helen of Troy. Our English "Hellenic," which refers to Greece itself, often called the Land of Light, also has the same root. Hel is a positive root, although the name Helen can also be read as "torch," considering what her presence did to Troy. (Charlotte Brontë, highly underrated in her use of symbolic character names, plays with this light/fire dichotomy in Jane Eyre, in which she calls her most angelic character "Helen Burns." The evil schoolmarms of Lowood constantly warn her that she will burn in Hell, and she dies of a fever in Jane’s arms. Note how her name ironically encodes the warning: Helen Burns = Burns en Hel. Brontë obviously didn’t mean for Helen to burn in Hell -- the reference is to her luminosity and her afterlife in the realm of Light.)

In Greek mythology, hel also happens to be in the name of Jason’s scorned wife, Helles, in the story of the Golden Fleece (which is often read as an allegory about the sun). If one pursues the Greek associations with the root hel, it is not possible to avoid its connection to the ancient Egyptian her (since the Egyptians used R and L interchangeably); that avenue of inquiry provides some puzzling but rewarding links to light and fire. To name the major one, the Egyptian name for the sun god is Heru, which could also be read Helu, connecting the Egyptian Horus with the Greek Helios (and also to our word "hero").

In the Elder Edda, one of the Ur texts of Teutonic culture, Hel is the goddess of the dead and ruler of the nine hells of Helheim. (Oddly, her home is called Regnvat, which means "wet by rain," but that makes sense if we link her name to fire and fire to the life force -- her realm is a "hidden" one in which the life force has been doused. Hel rules a dark and shadowy underworld more akin to Hades than to the fire-and-brimstone Hell of the Christians. But note how Regnvat also links Hel to the sky, which is the source of both rain and light -- the life-positive forces.) The German word for "Hell" is Hšlle, but that relates to so many other words and concepts that I will have to devote another column to it.