The game of dreidel is everything a gamer hates and a gambler loves: The thrill is in the lack of skill and the inability to control the outcome. It’s all about luck. Very UnGreek….
The Greeks, of course, gave us the sciences (all sciences end in “ology” – from the Greek logos, or science). They looked at the world and insisted on removing wonder and depth. They wanted an explanation for everything, the manual for its manipulation, and the control to expand and limit all forces of “nature.” Chanukah tells us that sometimes, especially in the dark and cold of winter/Galus, we need to let go of our supposed control and let the Divine run the show.
Years ago, I heard a beautiful idea from Rav Etiel Goldwicht: The Hebrew spelling of Yavan is three letters: yud, vov, and nun. All three are straight lines: one short, one medium length, and one long. That’s how the Greeks and their culture liked things. Always neat and orderly. Spelled backwards, you get “Noy” or beauty. We appreciate the beauty and order in G-d’s creation, no doubt, but we don’t limit our appreciation to the superficial. Seeing beyond that beauty requires prefacing it with something righteous; or the letter tzaddik. When added to the beginning of the linear and superficial beauty of the yud, vov, and nun, we get tzion. As the Gemara (Bavli Kiddushin 49b) says: 10 measures of beauty came down (into) the world and Jerusalem took nine of them.