Dayeinu – Rebbe Akiva’s Song?

April, 2012

Over yom tov, and even starting from the Shabbos hagodol drasha, countless people will return home and be asked, “So what did the rav speak about?”

Pretty much, no matter what question the rav dealt with, some in the family will respond ‘Oh, that at is a famous question”.

And, they would often not be wrong. There is virtually no question that can be asked on the seder and its hagada that cannot be located in any of its tens-of-thousands of commentaries. I think it is fair to say that there has been no book in the history of mankind that had the number of commentaries written on it, and people investigating openly and vocally its contents.

So I want to beat everyone to the punch. I want to open with a question which is not just, arguably, one of the most famous questions on the hagada, but a question so famous that we as children likely all asked it.

This most famous question comes from the most famous song in the hagada. A song whose tune and refrain is known even to some outside the Jewish world.

In fact, every year the famous, world-broadcasted NPR southern radio show ‘A Prairie Home Companion’ ends their pre Passover edition with a solo piano of this tune.

I am referring in general to the piyut of ‘Dayenu’, and specifically to one refrain therein: Ilu Keirvanu Lifnei Har Sinai, Vlo Noson Lanu Es HaTorah, Dayeinu –Had You brought us before Har Sinai, even without giving us the Torah, that (too) would have been enough”.

The question is more than obvious. As a nation we bleed the Torah, our fidelity to its teachings and to our instruction of those to our children is not just at the core of our lives, but something we, quite literally, tie to our bodies each day, and hang on the entrances to every room we enter and exit from.

That the paytan would add this simply to wax poetic is untenable. There must be a deeper meaning here.

This question has vexed virtually every gaon who has written on the hagada; from the Brisker Rav to the Chofetz Chaim.

But before we see some of their approaches, a corollary question must be raised: who wrote Dayeinu? Is it from chazal? Is it a later edition that although today is standardized, was not in fact a part of Torah Sh’bal Peh? In fact, the Rambam does not include Dayeinu in his version of the Hagada at all!

The first hint to the antiquity of the piyut comes from the fact that it is found already in the Hagada of Rav Sadia Gaon (d. 942), although it is unclear if this is a later addition to his work.

However, Rav Avraham Ben HaRambam does point out (manuscript; quoted in Maaseh Rokeach on Rambam, chametz u’matzah-hagada) that although left out of his father’s written Hagada, this does not mean that he did himself did not include it personally. In fact, he writes, not only did the Maimon family say this piyut growing up, but it went back generations. As for why Rambam left it out, this was for unrelated technical reasons (it not being well known everywhere, etc.)

So where, then, does this piyut then come from?

The answer to this last mystery comes from someone we have quoted often in these pages these past few months, the Tashbeitz, Rav Duran (d.1444), in his Magen Avos to Pirkei Avos (3:14). He says two things that are nothing short of spectacular; both of which will offer new meaning to this ‘piyut’.

First he points out that in old editions of the halachic midrash Mechilta, Dayeinu was taught by none other than Rebbe Akiva! In his Zevach Pesach, the Abarbenal also says that this was taught by Rebbe Akiva. Rav Duran goes on to suggest that this is alluded to in the Hagada itself, as the statement right before Dayeinu is, “Rebbe Akiva says: from where do we know that every single Makkah that Hakadosh Baruch Hu brought on Mitzraim had contained with it five makkos?...” Dayeinu is a just a continuation of this lost text!

The other statement that Rav Duran says ages Dayeinu even more outstandingly. He asserts that Dayeinu was a part of the nusach said when one would offer their bikkurim in the time of the Beis Hamikdosh! (See Mesivta Hagada, p. 309 in the otzros)

Dayeinu, now, explodes with an even deeper significance. Note its opening sentence to Dayeinu: “Kama Maalos Tovos LaMakom Aleinu”.

The non-sequiter term maalos is noted by both Maharal and the Vilna Gaon as being a reference to the 15 shir hamaalosfound in sefer tehilim!

Indeed, there are 15 mentions in Dayeinu as well (the reader should be careful when counting, as the first Dayeinu only appears after the second praise)!

In fact, each Dayeinu seems to match it kpittel Tehilim. So, for example, the final, 15^th, Shir Hamaalos 134, contains the pasuk (pasuk aleph) retaling to the Beis Habechira, like the final stanza of Dayeinu; kpitel 134, the 14^th Shir Hamaalos, contains a pasuk that relates to our connection to eretz hakodesh (pasuk gimmel), as is the focus of the 14^th stanza of Dayeinu, and so on!

Many in fact tie the above 15 to another 15 found at the very opening of the seder – the 15 simanei haseder with which we open the seder (“kadeish, urchatz…)!

Being Torah Sh’Baal Peh, we should not be surprised that even more significance can be found in Dayeinu and its number.

Abarbenel points out that in Sefer Yechezkal (16:9-13) the navi describes 15 expressions of Hashem’s love that we experienced in yetzias mitzraim:

(1)And I washed you with water, (2)and I rinsed your blood off you, (3)and I anointed you with oil. (4) And I clothed you with embroidered garments, (5) and I shod you with [the skin of the] badger, (6) and I girded you with fine linen, (7) and I covered you with silk. (8) And I adorned you with ornaments, (9) and I put bracelets on your hands and a necklace on your neck. (10) And I put a nose ring on your nose and earrings on your ears, (11) and a crown of glory on your head. (12) And you adorned yourself with gold and silver, (13) and your raiment was fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth; fine flour, honey, and oil you ate, (14) and you became exceedingly beautiful (15) and you became fit for the throne.

We have, I hope shown, that this question we opened with is not only a strong question, but the statement on which it is predicated may very well be a part of our Torah Sh’baal Peh!

Now that what have seen that Dayainu is not simply any piyut, we can return to our opeing, and famous, question. How can it be that we would dare suggest that not receiving the Torah would ever be enough.

Instead of listing for you a litany of various approaches, let me share one with you that, to me, is the greatest chiddush. In Hagadas Maasei Hashem rav Elizar Ashkanzi (d. 1585) suggests a fascinating approach, not just to our question, but to the whole meaning of Dayeinu.

This word “Dayeinu’, that we typically translate to mean “It would have been enough”, he suggests means “Dayeinu?”  – Would it indeed have been enough?

We are speaking in a note of request throughout this piyut, reminding Hashem and ourselves how each level of birchas am yisroel was necessary!!

This is similar to how some translate the word ‘Mah’ in Mah Nishtaneh, not as “Why?”, or “In what way is this night different…” but, ‘Why!’ As in, “My! (or ‘Why!’), is this night different than all other nights! (Aruch HaShulchan, inter alia).

In terms of Dayeinu, this brings it into a whole new light.

“Ilu Keirvanu Lifnei Har Sinai, Vlo Noson Lanu Es HaTorah, Dayeinu?” “Had You brought us before Har Sinai, even without giving us the Torah; would that have been enough?!”.

The answer then is, assuredly, no, and by this stanza we give over by the seder a new naaseh v’nishma.

So many secrets in our Hagada!

Wishing all readers a simchadek and chag kosher!