Saturday, December 19, 2009

A calvinist plays a Jewish game


A small break from Edouard Glissant, we'll get back to him and Animesh Rai very soon, I promise. To take a look at dreidel.

Our family celebrates Hannukah. We have the privilege to live in a great city with many different cultures. Judaism contributes a lot to the unique character of New York. When they were smaller our children came back from school having learned about Jewish customs. We have adopted some of them and we particularly enjoy the celebrations around Hanukkah. We light one more candle every night on our lovely menorah. We eat fried food almost every night of that week. And we play dreidel, or sevivon. In this game, each player contributes a nut or a candy or a coin to the kitty. They take turns rolling a kind of die, the dreidel. (Picture of a beautiful ancient dreidl above). There are four sides to the die: either you win the whole kitty, or half of it, or you gain none or you have to pay two coins.

Now I grew up in the birthplace of calvinism. We were taught all gain should be, and can be, earned by persistent labor. In the board games we play, we go laboriously around many squares to reach some kind of heaven or home. Not for the Jews. On a whim of chance, they win everything or have to pay. It seems such a reflection of what the lot of the Jews has been through the centuries. At times they might have been allowed to acquire a certain wealth. Which could all be lost on a whim of chance. The dreidel game is fun and light, like many of my Jewish friends. We laugh at loosing. At winning. We surreptitiously stick candy in our mouth. Better enjoy it while we have it.

Contributed by - Arabella Hutter

2 comments:

  1. Je suis un peu surpris mais pas étonné. Vos enfants ont le plaisir et la chance d'être introduit a une autre culture. Je dis chance car les juifs on tellement de manières d'interpréter leurs traditions. Certains prennent les choses tellement au sérieux que ces traditions deviennent plus un fardeau pesant qu'un jeu de toupie.Alors tout devient clos. Merci de m'avoir associé a votre contribution.
    Rene LEVARY

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  2. Très fin, votre commentaire, René. Vous avec raison, bien sûr. Nous avons la chance d'avoir des amis qui suivent leurs traditions de manière souple. Toute religion lorsqu'elle devient extrémiste enferme son adepte dans un carcan. A New York nous observons certainement ces deux options, que ce soit dans le judaïsme ou l'islam. Pas trop de fondamentaliste chrétiens ici, heureusement, ils sont plutôt dans le centre des Etats-Unis!

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