The traditional Dayenu sung at the Passover Seder ends with building the First Temple. As this poem suggests, much has happened since then which we should acknowledge…
Dayenu
We reconfigured Temple ruins:Dug concept wells, filled thought lagoons.The sacred words we set to tunes:dayenu
We offered up our smokeless praise:Acrostic hymns, in rhymed word plays,In our trademark tongue, our standard phrase:dayenu
We stained a sea of pages, linedwith how to search for what we find. Built great cathedrals of the mind.dayenu
The year of inquisition’s painColumbus sailed the sea’s blue stainWe sang upon the Spanish plain:dayenu
The fidelity of our virgin looksEach first time we re-read our books.Stone soup made by mystic cooks.dayenu
Regenerate in every ageA poet, leader, scribe or sageput ink-black words on moon-white page:dayenu
Since Weimar we’ve never had so goodin thousand oaks and forest woodin ivy leagues and hollywooddayenu
Beyond the Pale, outside the foldour outstretched reach exceeds our holdA parking spot on the streets of gold.dayenu
We wandered here and sojourned thereTil chimney smoke stained Europe’s air.In Warsaw’s Pesach did we declaredayenu?
An evergreen, an olive tree;To be a people, rooted, free;A Hebrew university:dayenu
An eagle’s magic carpet rideThrough modern heaven, with a sabra guidewith our ash-strewn hair and our stiff-necked pride:dayenu
We thought we’d never see the sightthe blue-stained star on a field of whiteHebrew TV election night: dayenu
A passport with our cursive script;The light fantastic that we’ve tripped;the cup of wine we’ve barely sipped:dayenu
Faithful to our faceless Word,with endless talk of what we’ve learned,And cognizant of what’s occurred:dayenu
- eBenBrandeis Toronto, Pesach 2006
Dayenu
We reconfigured Temple ruins:Dug concept wells, filled thought lagoons.The sacred words we set to tunes:dayenu
We offered up our smokeless praise:Acrostic hymns, in rhymed word plays,In our trademark tongue, our standard phrase:dayenu
We stained a sea of pages, linedwith how to search for what we find. Built great cathedrals of the mind.dayenu
The year of inquisition’s painColumbus sailed the sea’s blue stainWe sang upon the Spanish plain:dayenu
The fidelity of our virgin looksEach first time we re-read our books.Stone soup made by mystic cooks.dayenu
Regenerate in every ageA poet, leader, scribe or sageput ink-black words on moon-white page:dayenu
Since Weimar we’ve never had so goodin thousand oaks and forest woodin ivy leagues and hollywooddayenu
Beyond the Pale, outside the foldour outstretched reach exceeds our holdA parking spot on the streets of gold.dayenu
We wandered here and sojourned thereTil chimney smoke stained Europe’s air.In Warsaw’s Pesach did we declaredayenu?
An evergreen, an olive tree;To be a people, rooted, free;A Hebrew university:dayenu
An eagle’s magic carpet rideThrough modern heaven, with a sabra guidewith our ash-strewn hair and our stiff-necked pride:dayenu
We thought we’d never see the sightthe blue-stained star on a field of whiteHebrew TV election night: dayenu
A passport with our cursive script;The light fantastic that we’ve tripped;the cup of wine we’ve barely sipped:dayenu
Faithful to our faceless Word,with endless talk of what we’ve learned,And cognizant of what’s occurred:dayenu
- eBenBrandeis Toronto, Pesach 2006