Donut-aholics

I found the perfect thing to serve at my high stakes dreidel game.

Vodka Sufganiyot! I'm serious. Check out the Ynet article here.

For those of you who don't know, sufganiyot are jelly donuts, and they are a big part of the Hanukkah tradition here in Israel.

Anyway, a liquor company has decided that this year they are going to market their new brand of Vodka, by infusing it into the popular holiday pastry.

The donuts will have about the same amount of alcohol as 1 bottle of beer, and will cost only 4.5 shekel, which is just a little over a dollar.

What I am saying, is that this Hanukkah in Israel, for less than $7, you can get hammered on a six pack of jelly donuts.

If that isn't enough to make young American Jews considder making Aliyah, I don't know what is. Spread the word on college campuses every where, donut party in the Holy Land!

Hilarious.

A Great Miracle Happened Here

I have this idea for a high stakes dreidel game.

I am picturing something like 5 guys sitting around a table, smoking cigars and drinking beer. Each brings about 200 shekels in 10 shekel coins, and take turns spinning the top like they were rolling dice in Vegas.

People would be yelling things like, "Give me a gimmel bitch!" and "Spin like I made you out of clay!"

I was pitching the idea to one of my buddies, just trying to get a laugh, and who knows maybe he would be into a little "Jewish roulette", but then he told something I didn't know. He said that dreidels in the United States are actually different than those in Israel.

I'll explain.

Dreidels have 4 sides, each marked by a letter representing a word. Nun (נ) Gimmel (ג)- Hay (ה)- Shin (ש). In Hebrew, "Nes gadol haya sham" meaning, "A great miracle happened there."

But when you live in Israel, the miracle of course didn't happen "there", it happened "here".
The hebrew word for "here" is "po", so the shin is replaced by a Pay (פ). "Nes gadol haya po", meaning, "A great miracle happened here."

Immediately I was filled with a sense of pride. I no longer live "there", I live "here". I live where the miracle happened.

"Spin you little bastard, spin!"