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Dayenu (Hebrew:דַּיֵּנוּ) is a song that is part of the Jewish holiday of Passover. The word "Dayenu" means approximately "it would have been enough for us", "it would have been sufficient", or "it would have sufficed" (day in Hebrew is "enough", and -enu the first person plural suffix, "to us"). This traditional up-beat Passover song is over one thousand years old. The earliest full text of the song occurs in the first medieval haggadah, which is part of the ninth-century Seder Rav Amram. The song is about being grateful to God for all of the gifts he gave the Jewish people, such as taking them out of slavery, giving them the Torah and Shabbat, and had God only given one of the gifts, it would have still been enough. This is to show much greater appreciation for all of them as a whole. The song appears in the haggadah after the telling of the story of the exodus and just before the explanation of Passover, matzah and the maror.
Contents
The fifteen stanzas
Dayenu has 15 stanzas representing the 15 gifts God bestowed. The first five involve freeing the Jews from slavery, the next describe the miracles He did for them, and the last five for the closeness to God He gave them. Each of the stanzas is followed by the word "Dayenu" (it would have been enough) sung repeatedly. The 15 stanzas are as follows:
Five Stanzas of Leaving Slavery
1) If He had brought us out of Egypt.
2) If He had executed justice upon the Egyptians.
3) If He had executed justice upon their gods.
4) If He had slain their first-born.
5) If He had given to us their health and wealth.
Five Stanzas of Miracles
6) If He had split the sea for us.
7) If He had led us through on dry land.
8) If He had drowned our oppressors.
9) If He had provided for our needs in the wilderness for 40 years.
10) If He had fed us manna.
Five Stanzas of Being With God
11) If He had given us Shabbat.
12) If He had led us to Mount Sinai.
13) If He had given us the Torah.
14) If He had brought us into the Land of Israel.
15) If He built the Temple for us.
Customs associated with Dayenu
Jews in Afghanistan and Iran hit each other over the head with green onions during the refrain beginning with the ninth stanza (Even if you had supplied our needs in the desert for 40 years but not provided us with manna). This may be due to a passage in Numbers 11:5–6, where the Israelites see manna and recall Egypt. "We remember the fish that we used to eat in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions and the garlic. Now our gullets are shriveled. There is nothing at all. Nothing but this manna to look at." It is thought that by beating each other with the onions they taught themselves not to yearn for Egypt or to forget Egyptian slavery.
Other versions
Michele Landsberg wrote The Women's Dayenu
If Eve had been created in the Image of God and not as a helper to Adam, DAYENU If she had been created as Adam’s equal and not been considered a temptress, DAYENU If Lot’s wife had been honored for compassion for looking back at the fate of her family in Sodom, and had not been punished for it, DAYENU If our mothers had been honoured for their daughters as well as for their sons, DAYENU If our fathers had not pitted our mothers against each other, like Abraham with Sarah and Hagar, or Jacob with Leah and Rachel, DAYENU If the Just Women in Egypt who caused our redemption had been given sufficient recognition, DAYENU If Miriam were given her seat with Moses and Aaron in our legacy, DAYENU If women had written the Haggadah and placed our mothers where they belong in history, DAYENU If every generation of women together with every generation of men would continue to go out of Egypt, DAYENU."