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The
tradition of giving gelt, or Hanukkah gelt coins, to children began in
Europe in the Middle Ages. Occasionally the gelt
is used to create a pot for a game of dreidels.
The dreidel is a spinning top with a different letter on each of its four
sides. The letters are the first initials of the words in the phrase nes
gadol haya sham, meaning "a great miracle happened there." Children
and parents play the game until someone wins all of the gelt. In modern
Israel the letters of the dreidel were changed to reflect the translation
"a great miracle happened here." The dreidel is called sevivon
in Hebrew.
From Compton's Encyclopedia
Hanukkah
Gelt
Savings bonds,
checks, and small chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil-these are the modern
incarnations of the traditional gift known as Hanukkah gelt. Gelt
is a Yiddish term for money.
Although
it is an old and cherished custom, the roots of gelt giving go
back much further than the Middle Ages, the era in which the custom is
usually said to have originated. Even though it is not mentioned in neither
the Talmud nor the Shulhan Arukh (the Code of Jewish Law), the importance
of coins in the history of the Hasmonean period is undeniable.
The First
Book of Maccabees records that in 142 B.C.E., 22 years after the Temple
was recaptured, Simon the Maccabee, the surviving son of Mattathias, finally
brought independence to Judea. Syrias King Antiochus VII declared
to Simon: I turn over to you the right to make your own stamp for
coinage for your country. (I Macabees 15:6) The ability to mint
its own coins was a concrete expression of the newly-won independence
of the Jewish people.
During
the following years of the Hasmonean dynasty, the first Jewish coins in
history were issued. Most depicted cornucopia, symbolic of the prosperity
of the country during these years. One of the coins minted by the last
of the Hasmonean kings, Antigonus Matityahu (40-37 B.C.E.), portrayed
the seven-branched menorah on one side and the Table of Shew Bread on
the other, both symbols of the restored Temple. Some scholars conjecture
that these designs may actually have been intended to remind the people
of Hanukkah, which had been neglected during the waning years of the Hasmonean
dynasty.
When the
Second Temple was destroyed in 70 C.E., Jewish coinage ceased until modem
times, except for a brief period during the Bar Kochba Revolution (132-135
C.E.). So, no Jewish coins were available to distribute when the custom
of Hanukkah gelt giving emerged as an important part of the festival
during the Middle Ages. Then, it was traditional to give Hanukkah gelt
to the local Jewish teacher; in fact, it was his primary means of support.
When the tradition was expanded to include giving coins to children, it
became a way to emphasize the importance of Jewish education and the study
of Torah.
Since the founding of the State of Israel, Jewish coinage has become a
fascinating part of numismatics worldwide. In 1958, the Bank of Israel
initiated a program of striking special commemorative coins for use as
Hanukkah gelt. In a brilliantly conceived move to link the modern world
with the ancient history of our people, the first Hanukkah coin portrayed
exactly the same menorah that had appeared on the Last Maccabean coins
of Antigonus Matityahu, 1,998 years earlier. Each year since 1958 (except
1964-71), the Hanukkah gelt coin has honored a different Jewish community
around the world. In 1972, a silver coin was struck showing a 20th century
Russian menorah, a rather clear message to the world about Soviet Jewry.
On the 200th anniversary of the United States' Declaration of Independence,
the 1976 Hanukkah coin featured a colonial American menorah. Other issues
through the years have featured Menorahs from many different lands where
Jews have lived.
Whatever
your source for Hanukkah gelt, it is always a wonderful tradition to put
some of what you receive into a tzedakah box in order to share your good
fortune with those in need or for a good cause.
from http://www.joi.org/celebrate/hanuk/gelt.shtml |