Dayenu

After we discuss the plagues, we recite the hymn dayenu. Dayenu lists 15 ways that G-d helped the Jewish people and for 14 of them we say that if G-d did not help us in that particular way it would have been enough what G-d had already done for us. The hymn raises several questions.

One, the sixth act is that G-d split the Yam Suf and the seventh act is that G-d brought us safely through the Yam Suf. How we can say that it was enough for G-d to have split the Yam Suf and not to have helped us pass through the Yam Suf? What would have been the point of splitting the Yam Suf if we had remained stuck on one side? The Haggadah Torat Chayyim (Mossad Harav Kook) quotes a commentary which is ascribed to the Rashbam that the benefit of the seventh act is that we passed comfortably through the Yam Suf. After G-d split the Yam Suf, we could have passed through to the other side, but it would have been muddy. Thus, G-d performed an additional miracle to dry up the Yam Suf.

Two, the ninth and tenth acts are that G-d provided us with our needs and that G-d gave us the mahn in the desert. What is the difference between these actions and could the people have really survived without G-d's help in the desert? With regard to the latter question, the commentary that is ascribed to the Rashbam says yes, that the people could have bought food and supplies from the nations that lived near the desert. With regard to the difference between the ninth and tenth actions, Shibolei ha-Leket (Rome, 13th century, quoted in Haggadah Torat Chayyim) explains that the reference is to the clothing of the Jewish people that G-d ensured that their clothing did not get worn out. However, dayenu follows the order of parashat Beshalach, and hence it is more likely that the reference of the ninth act is that G-d provided the people with water, Shemot 15:25, as this occurred before the giving of the mahn, Shemot 16:15, and according to tradition, G-d provided the people with water for forty years until Miryam died.

Three, the 13th act was that G-d gave us the Torah, but then how can we say after the 12th act, that it was enough that G-d did not have to give us the Torah? The commentary ascribed to the Rashbam offers two suggestions. One, that it was not necessary for G-d to have told us the Decalogue, but we could have been told the entire Torah by Moshe. Yet, even if Moshe transmitted the Torah, still it was G-d who gave us the Torah. Two, that it was not necessary for G-d to have given us all of the commandments as he could have given us just a half or a third of the laws! My guess is that the word dayenu, its enough, is not referring to the 14 ways that G-d helped the people, but rather to a person’s obligation to thank G-d. The first item on the list, for which we do not say dayenu, is that G-d took us out of Egypt. Once G-d took us out of Egypt one has an obligation to thank G-d, even if G-d had not done for us the other 14 favors. Even if G-d had not given us the Torah, we still would have had an obligation to thank G-d for taking us out of Egypt. Thus, dayenu means it is enough that G-d took us out of Egypt for us to be obligated to thank G-d.

This understanding of the hymn explains why it is recorded in the Haggadah, even though most of the actions referred to do not relate to the Exodus. The answer is that our obligation to thank G-d derives from the first act of the hymn, the Exodus itself, and all the other actions are just additional reasons why we have to thank G-d.

(After writing this explanation, Ari Zivotofsky wrote to me that Rav Amital had developed this idea and related it to Yom Ha-azmaut, that we are obligated to thank G-d for the land of Israel. Afterwards saw that Menachem Leibtag, 1995, p.7, also suggested this understanding of the word dayenu.)