By Simcha Weinstein

Welcome to “Extreme Sports: Jewish Style.” I’ll leave the suicidal skateboarding to the kids. Being a rabbi, I’m more of a dreidel blackbelt!

While they aren’t as transformative as the Kabbalah or as lucrative as a lottery win, I’m uniquely qualified to reveal to you another very powerful secret of the universe: the Upside Down Dreidel Spin.

This is the bubbie of all spins, but in the spirit of Chanukah, remember: just as the oil in the temple burned for eight days, a great dreidel player must cultivate patience and perseverance in order to master this move.

Step 1
Despite what the song says, most dreidels aren’t “made out of clay.” That’s the good news, because when it comes to dreidels, materials matter.

Start with a good quality dreidel, not one of the cheap plastic ones. The ideal dreidel is made of wood and measure about 1-inch square.

Here’s the key: make sure the very top of the handle is smooth, without any nicks or cracks.

Step 2

You also need a hard, smooth surface to spin on. Based on my extensive
experience, I highly recommend the underside of a challah board.

Now, grip the dreidel’s handle between your index finger and thumb, with
your palm facing upwards. The back of your hand should be no more than
6-inches above the spinning surface.

Step 3

Spin the dreidel with a snap of your thumb and index finger as you
normally would — but release the dreidel with a gentle upward toss.

Step 4
Watch the amazed and impressed expressions on the faces of your family and
friends.

Because at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about. The very shape
of the dreidel is a metaphor: when all its square, chunky contours spin,
the dreidel looks round and smooth.

And just as the circle has no top and bottom and all its points are
equivalent, so too is the family. When we come together in a circle of
embrace, each member is equally important.

However, that doesn’t stop me from wanting to outdo them all with my
Upside Down Dreidel Spin. I’d better start practicing now if I want to be
ready for Chanukah.

Rabbi Simcha Weinstein is Center Director at the Rohr Jewish Student Center of the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. He is also Chaplain of Religious Affairs at Pratt and has been named “New York’s Hippest Rabbi” in 2011. He is the author of “Up, Up, and Oy Vey” and “Stick Shift”, taking on comic books and Jewish humor with a Rabbinic twist. Tune in every second week on blog.chabad.edu for Simcha’s Confessions of an Art School Rabbi.