Dayenu

Dayenu (Hebrew: דַּיֵּנוּ‎, Dayyēnū) is a song that is part of the Jewish holiday of Passover. The word "dayenu" means approximately "it would have been enough", "it would have been sufficient", or "it would have sufficed" (day in Hebrew is "enough", and -enu the first person plural suffix, "to us"). This traditional up-beat Passover song is over one thousand years old. The earliest full text of the song occurs in the first medieval haggadah, which is part of the ninth-century Seder Rav Amram.^[1] The song is about being grateful to God for all of the gifts given to 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.

^ Ben-Amos, Dan; Noy, Dov, eds. (2006). Folktales of the Jews: Tales from Eastern Europe. Vol. II. Jewish Publication Society of America. p. 383. ISBN 9780827608306.

[1] Ben-Amos, Dan; Noy, Dov, eds. (2006). Folktales of the Jews: Tales from Eastern Europe. Vol. II. Jewish Publication Society of America. p. 383. ISBN 9780827608306.

[1]