Dayenu Discussion

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Community Member:

In this song, we say to Adonai that if they had only performed one of the three great acts of the pesach story: the liberation of the Jews from Mitzrayim, the writing of the Torah, and the establishment of Shabbat, the day of rest from which we have just emerged, than “Dayenu” - “It would have been enough”

We sing together

Community Member:

"What does this mean, "It would have been enough"? Surely no one of these would indeed have been enough for us. Dayenu means to celebrate each step toward freedom as if it were enough, then to start out on the next step. It means that if we reject each step because it is not the whole liberation, we will never be able to achieve the whole liberation. It means to sing each verse as if it were the whole song—and then sing the next verse.” [ This text and the poem that follows are from JFREJ BLM Haggadah, p. 5-6]

But because each step is not the whole liberation, we must also remember to sing the next verse.

Leader:

KB Frazier’s reworking of the Dayenu poem addresses us, rather than G-d. It calls us to greater action for justice, saying “lo dayeinu” (it would not have been enough) in recognition of the work still unfinished.

Content Warning: The poem includes discussion of anti-Black racism and descriptions of police violence.

We read together:

1. If we spark a human rights revolution that will unite people all over the world and do not follow our present day Nachshons as they help us part the sea of white supremacy and

institutional racism — Lo Dayeinu

2. If we follow Nachshons like the youth leaders in Ferguson and do not heed the words they

speak from Black Liberation Leader Assata Shakur: It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains — Lo Dayeinu

3. If we learn and chant the words from Assata Shakur and do not protest violence by

militarized police — Lo Dayeinu

4. If we protest police use of tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper spray and rifles pointed at

protesters and forget that we are all b’tselem elohim, created in G-d’s image — Lo Dayeinu

5. If we remember that we are all created in G-d’s image and do not affirm Black Lives Matter —

Lo Dayeinu

6. If we chant and cry out that Black Lives Matter and do not remember Rekia Boyd, Alyanna

Jones, Shantel Davis, Yvette Smith and Tyisha Miller, Black women and girls also killed by police — Lo Dayeinu

7. If we march for those killed, chanting Hands up Don’t shoot and do not recall the words of

Eicha: Lift of thy hands toward Hashem for the life of the thy young children, that faint for hunger at the head of every street. — Lo Dayeinu

8. If we recall the words of Eicha and do not call attention to the school to prison pipeline and

the mass incarceration of Black and brown people — Lo Dayeinu

9. If we call attention to the “new Jim Crow” system — and do not truly sh’ma (listen) —

Lo Dayeinu

10. If we truly listen to the stories, pain and triumphs of our siblings of color

without feeling the need to correct, erase or discredit them and do not recognize the Pharaohs of

this generation — Lo Dayeinu

11. If we work to dismantle the reigns of today’s Pharoahs and do not joined the new civil

rights movement — Lo Dayeinu

12. If we march, chant, listen, learn and engage in this new civil rights movement and do not realize that this story is our story, including our people and requiring our full participation

— Lo Dayeinu

13. If we conclude that our work is not done, that the story is still being written, that now is still

the moment to be involved and that we haven’t yet brought our gifts and talents to the Black Lives Matter Movement - Lo Dayeinu

(KB Frazier, JFREJ Black Lives Matter Haggadah)

haggadah Section: -- Cup #2 & Dayenu