There was some irony to this subterfuge, as the Torah forbids gambling.
Whenever Maccabees gathered to discuss religious matters, they put a dreidel on the table and spun it boisterously if any authorities passed by, creating the illusion that they were simply wagering on a game of chance.
by the Maccabees, a clan of Jews living under the harsh reign of Syrian king Antiochus IV, who had decreed that the study of the Torah-a practice paramount to Jewish spiritual life-was punishable by death. Legend tells that dreidels were first spun in the second century B.C.E.
