A close look at the song, however, reveals that many stanzas don’t seem to make any logical sense. To take just two examples: 1) If Hashem would have brought us out of Egypt and not split the sea, dayenu – “It would have been enough.” 2) If Hashem would have split the sea and not given us food and water in the desert, dayenu – “It would have been enough.”
If Hashem had brought us out of Egypt but not split the sea, surely we would all have died at the hands of the advancing Egyptian army. If Hashem had split the sea but not given us food and water, surely we would all have died of starvation and heat exhaustion in the desert.
It is abundantly clear, then, that each individual stage is inherently incomplete without the continuation of the stage that follows.
And so every year, when I read the Haggadah, singing Dayenu gives me an important perspective that reveals the very essence of what gratitude and saying “thank you” is all about.
Understanding the process described in Dayenu reveals deep relevance for us today. If our only focus in life is one of goal orientation, then we would never be able to feel appreciation for anything until we have achieved our goal. If we focus solely on the destination, we will find it exceptionally difficult to appreciate each stage of the journey. If the purpose of Dayenu is to celebrate reaching the goal of redemption, then indeed it would never have been enough.
When we focus on each stage of the process itself and not on the end result, we can appreciate every small step. When we see how far we have come as opposed to how far there is to go, what we have as opposed to what we still lack, we are able to feel deep gratitude irrespective of whether we have achieved our final aim or not. The word dayenu in this song means “it would have been enough to say thank you.”
Hence, if Hashem had brought us out of Egypt but not split the sea, we would have thanked Him for this miraculous act, for this taste of freedom and dignity, regardless of what the future held. If Hashem had split the sea but we had died of starvation and heat exhaustion soon afterward, we ought still to have thanked Him for having experienced the unparalleled marvel of the splitting of the sea and the work of divine justice against the Egyptian oppressors. Therefore, the Dayenu of Pesach sets the stage for a Dayenu mindset regarding our appreciation of Israel.
Perhaps if we apply the concept to contemporary times, it will become more clear.
The modern-day Dayenu I included in the new Koren Mahzor [Machzor] for Yom Ha’Atzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim demonstrates this concept:
If Hashem had brought us back to the Land of Israel, But not given us a sovereign state,
Dayenu – it would have been enough.If Hashem had given us a sovereign state and allowed us a taste of freedom and dignity for but a moment, But we would have lost the War of Independence,
Dayenu – it would have been enough.If Hashem had helped us be victorious in the War of Independence, But we would not have succeeded in building a viable country,
Dayenu – it would have been enough.If Hashem had allowed us to win the Six-Day War, But not given back to us the holy cities of Chevron, Beit El, Shilo, as well as the Golan Heights,
Dayenu – it would have been enough.Advertisement
