Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Passover: Adding a New Dayenu to our seder

In many households, it is part of the Passover tradition to add new songs and stories to the seder. For years we added a fourth matzah, to remind ourselves of the struggles of the Soviet Jews. For 5 years we remembered and prayed for the safe return of Gilad Shalit, reminding each other that until all of us are free, none of us are free. The seder is a reminder that our history and our heritage as Jews is ongoing. The story is not over.

The American Zionist Movement has suggestions to complete and modernize Dayenu. It calls upon the Jewish People to give thanks for the return to Israel and for all of the accomplishments of the Jewish People since the establishment of the State.

From the American Zionist Movement.



"If we had returned to Israel after two thousand years and had not established the State of Israel. Dayenu.

If we had established the State of Israel and not founded cities and made the sesert bloom. Dayenu.

If we had founded cities and made the desert bloom and had not absorbed millions of Olim. Dayenu.

If we had absorbed millions of Olim and had not revised the Hebrew language. Dayenu

If we had revised the Hebrew language and not developed a unique Israeli culture. Dayenu.

UPDATE:

( At my seder, it was uniformly agreed that the next two passages were a bit over the top. We'll likely skip them for the second night)

If we had developed a unique Israeli culture and had not established a myriad of social action organizations to improve Israeli society. Dayenu.

If we had established a myriad of social action organizations to improve Israeli society and had not developed innovative technologies to benefit the whole world. Dayenu.

If we had done all of this and even more but had not returned to Israel -Could we still say Dayenu? "

1 comment:

Juniper in the Desert said...

Shared! We will say these too!!