With Hanukkah beginning Tuesday night, Jews can look forward to the annual rituals of menorah-lighting, blessings, gift-giving – and gambling.
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In some Jewish homes, not only do children risk a stash of chocolate or goodies spinning the dreidel, but their parents play kvitlech, similar to blackjack. According to Dwayne Carpenter, Boston College scholar and a man who enjoys an occasional hand of blackjack and poker, Hanukkah card-playing was a traditional cover for Torah study, which had been outlawed for Jews by a Syrian-Greek king in the second century BCE.

With the Massachusetts Legislature bracing for a debate over casino gambling, endorsed by Governor Deval Patrick, several religious leaders, including Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, have spoken out against the proposal. Others are readying organized opposition to the proposal. It is interesting to note that the objectors include some from religions with a historical tolerance for certain games of chance.

“Both the Catholic and Jewish traditions traditionally set aside days for gambling,” said Carpenter, who as chairman of BC’s Romance Languages and Literature Department seems at first blush an unlikely authority on the subject. But he’s also a practicing Jew who read religious legal texts about gambling during a stint in law school. Last month, he was among the specialists addressing a BC conference on gambling and theology.

When he lived in New York City, he often played kvitlech when visiting Jewish friends during Hanukkah, he said.

Tolerance of Hanukkah gambling did not extend throughout the year to all games; the Talmud disqualified gamblers from serving as witnesses in legal proceedings.

In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church encouraged adherents to gamble on holy days. Carpenter cited one medieval treatise that suggested Christmas as an apt gaming day, because “it is a holy day on which everyone should rejoice in his home.”

“It’s not fair to say that the religious authorities were enthusiastic about gambling throughout the year. But it was seen to be a way to . . . add to the merriment of an already joyous occasion,” he said.

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Recovered from the Poker Players Alliance archive index. This is the archived item as preserved.