whenever we played dreidel on Hanukkah, I would lose.  And my mother would always declare with delight, “farshpilt is nit farnasht” as she gathered he winnings into a pile.  This was always interpreted to me as meaning “Losing isn’t just the loss of a taste.”  it is only with the years and a bit of reading that I understand the saying is far more encouranging.

„דו מיינסט אַז דו האָסט פֿאַרשפּילט דיין גאַנצע לעבן,“ האָט ער געזאָגט שטיל.
„אָבער פֿאַרשפּילט איז ניט פֿאַרנאַשט. אַ מענטש לעבט, אַזוי לאַנג ווי ער קען זיך נאָך אָנהייבן פֿון נײַ.“

says Y.L. Peretz,  something like, “you may have lost, but you can still begin again.”  Like “oib me lebt, derlebt men”  or “if you’re alive, you can live through it”

This is my miracle of Hanukkah now – that we have lived through a lot, and it has made us just a bit wiser, just a bit stronger.   being unvanquished.