43 The Passover Haggadah DAYYENU
God has bestowed many
Had he brought us out of Egypt,
ors on US,
‘And not punished the Egyptians, Dayyenu. Had he punished the Egyptians,
And not castigated their gods, Dayyenu. Had he castigated their gods,
And not put to death their firstborn, Dayyent. Had he put to death their firstborn,
‘And not given us of their wealth, Dayyenu. Had he given us of their wealth,
‘And not split the Red Sea for us, Dayyent. Had he split the Red Sea for us,
And not led us through it dryshod, Dayyenu. Had he led us through it dryshod,
‘And not engulfed our foes in it, Dayyenue Had he engulfed our foes in it,
‘And not sustained us in wasteland, Dayyenu Had he sustained us in wasteland,
‘And not fed us with the manna, Dayyenu. Had he fed us with the manna,
And not given us the Sabbath, Dayyenu. Had he given us the Sabbath,
And not brought us to Mount Sinai, Dayyenu.
Had he brought us to Mount Sinai, And not given us the Torah, Dayyenu.
Had he given us the Torah,
‘And not brought us to Israel, Dayyenu. Had he brought us to Israel, ‘And not built the Temple for us, Dayyent.
paragraph God has bestowed many favors on us. He will find no difficulty in picturing how we may recover our greatness, even if only one of us should remain” (Kuzari, 3:11).
The refrain Dayyens at the end of each verse means we should have been contented, or we should have thought it enough. The general idea conve: this passage is that the liberation from Egypt was not completed until Is had received the Torah and settled in the promised land. Omitted from the ‘Haggadah prepared by Maimonides, the poem Dayyenu is based upon Psalm 136:10-21 and Nehemiah 9:10-15 (“Thou didst perform signal acts upon
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