ו נ י
ד Dayenu
It Would Have Been Enough
Our Ingrained Obligation
Rabbi Maralee Gordon
In Parashat Bo, in chapters 12 and 13 of the Book of Exodus, as the Israelites prepare to escape their oppressive lives in Egypt, three times it is written that you shall tell your child about God redeeming you from Egypt with a strong arm and an outstretched hand, and a fourth time in Deuteronomy 6:21. Higad’ dita l’ bincha, tell your child, evolved into the Haggadah, our Book of Telling, recounting to our children and reminding ourselves of our origins and our obligations. We devote the Holy Festival of Pesach / Passover to remembering our beginnings in slavery from which we were redeemed. If that were the only time in the year that we would remember our beginnings in the degradation of slavery and our glorious redemption … Dayenu!
If that were not enough, at the start of every Shabbat and each of the three Festivals of the year, when in the Kiddush we proclaim the holiness of the day and we cite God’ s resting following the six days of creation as a rationale, the Exodus from Egypt, i. e. redemption from slavery, is a second rationale mentioned … Dayenu!
If that were not enough, twice a day, every day of the year, we say Sh’ ma uvirchotecha, the three biblical paragraphs of the Sh’ ma and its
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