Dayenu

One of the favorite parts of the Passover Seder is the singing of “Dayenu.” This traditional Passover song is over one thousand years old. The earliest full text of the song occurs in the first medieval haggadah, in the ninth century text of Seder Rav Amram. While we often sing only a few of the verses, there are actually 15 verses of this song of gratitude to God. The first five involve freeing the Jewish people from slavery, the next describe the miracles God did for us, and the last five reflect on our closeness to God. The number 15 also features in the outline of our journey, within the 15 steps of the Haggadah narrative as we move from slavery to freedom. Passover occurs on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, teaching us that as the moon waxes for 15 days, we must move from slavery towards freedom in 15 gradual steps.

The 15 verses of Dayenu list the the many things God did to help the Jewish people during the Exodus, such as freeing us from Pharaoh, splitting the sea for us, taking us through it on dry land, taking us to Mount Sinai, giving us the Torah, helping us survive in the desert for 40 years, and leading us to Israel. etc. The chorus, “dayenu,” means: “It would have been enough for us.” The essential message is: If God had done just one of these things, it would have been amazing. How much greater is it that God did all of these things! As we recount them, we show our thanks.

On the surface, the sequence of the lyrics is perplexing. After all, it’s illogical to declare that if God had split the sea for us and not led us through it on dry land, “it would have been enough for us.” If God had not led us through the sea on dry land, we would been caught by the pursuing Egyptian army. And, what good would it have been to be led to Mount Sinai and not to be given the Torah? Are these individual steps “enough for us”?

Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld writes, “How easy it is to live in constant anticipation, promising God and ourselves that we will be satisfied and grateful, if only . . . but there is always something else. This is part of what makes us human. When we say Dayeinu, on one level we are lying. We say, “It would have been enough.” But we know that this is not true. No single step of our journey out of slavery would have been sufficient. Yet, we tell this lie in order to cultivate our capacity for gratitude. We exercise our thanking muscles, trying at least for a moment to appreciate each and every small gift as if we really believed it was enough. Of course we want more. We have hopes and dreams for ourselves and for our children. But for their sakes, and for our own, we must also be able to stop and say Dayeinu: “This is enough for us, thank God.” For a moment, to feel that we have everything we need — that is what it means to say Dayeinu.” (Cultivating Gratitude, Boston 2000 – quoted in Noam Zion’s “A Different Night Haggadah” Storyteller appendix p. 24)

The seder night calls on us to pause and to just sit and reflect on all of our blessings. We notice how the stories of our past have constructed the world we live in today. But that is not enough. As we acknowledge the blessings that God has given us, we must open our doors to the poor and the stranger because we were once strangers and slaves in Egypt. We must live and learn what our ancestors have written for us in the Haggadah. Just as we praise God, we also praise and acknowledge with gratitude all those who have helped us on our journey.

The Exodus from Egypt is not only the focus of the Passover Seder. On Shabbat and holidays, within the text of the Kiddush we recall the Exodus from Egypt. Each day when we sing or say the Shema, we recall the Exodus because one of the 613 commandments in the Torah is to remember the Exodus every day. The Torah requires us to remember the Exodus from Egypt every day because the memory of our journey, and all the steps along the way, leads us to gratitude. Our people’s name “Yehudah” or Jew, comes from the Hebrew root that means to “thank” or “acknowledge.” This is an essential element of being a Jewish person.

In the midst of the Seder, the song “Dayenu” teaches us how to achieve that ultimate quality of gratitude. The song teaches us to stop and notice the greatness of each and every part of the journey. Each verse asks us to really focus on each individual blessing that we are given regardless of what came before or after it. Every blessing is a stand-alone gift,

Chag Pesach Sameach!

Rabbi Audrey S. Pollack

Filed under: Rabbi's Message

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