Dayenu
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Jewish and Israeli Music
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Music for Holidays
Hanukkah • Passover • Shabbat
Music of the Haggadah
Ma Nishtana • Dayenu • Adir Hu Chad Gadya • Echad Mi Yodea
Music of Hanukkah
Blessings • Oh Chanukah • Dreidel Song
Al Hanisim • Mi Y'malel • Ner Li

Main article: Passover songs

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" or "it would have sufficed." This traditional up-beat Passover song is over one thousand years old. 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. The word "day" in Hebrew means "enough" and "enu" means "our."

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. After each of the stanza, it is followed by singing the word "Dayenu" (it would have been enough) repeatedly in between stanzas. 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.

Dayenu, with transliterated lyrics and melody

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) He built the Temple for us.

Text

Customs Associated with Dayenu

Jews in Afghanistan and Iran will 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 teach themselves not to yearn for Egypt or to forget Egyptian Bondage.^[1] Another theory is that it is to scold themselves for yearning for Egypt and complaining.^[2]

Trivia

• Ben Kweller adopts the word "Dayenu" in the song Lizzy on his album Sha Sha.

On his website he describes it as "Dienu is like an old folk word that's Hebrew and it means 'it would have been enough'... when something good happens to you and then another good thing happens to you. What you had in the first place would have been enough, if nothing else happens to you. It's all about counting your blessings and staying grounded."

References

External links

• Listen to Dayenu online

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