Jews Aren’t Grateful. Yes We Are—Dayenu!

In his classic work on the history of the Haggadah, Ernst Daniel Goldschmidt (1895–1972) notes that the well-known seder song Dayenu first appears in the Haggadah of Rabbi Saʿadia Gaon (882–942), in a section of optional additions.^[1] The song was not immediately and universally adopted; for instance, it was not included in the Haggadah of the R. Moses Maimonides (Rambam, 1135–1204). Over time, however, it became a standard part of all Haggadot. Indeed, today without singing Dayenu, which literally means “would have sufficed,” our seder would be “insufficient.”

The song opens with a reflection on the exodus:

אִלּוּ הוֹצִיאָנוּ מִמִּצְרַיִם וְלֹא עָשָׂה בָהֶם שְׁפָטִים, דַּיֵּינוּ.

If He had brought us out of Egypt and not carried out judgments against Egyptians, dayenu.

Goldschmidt argues that Dayenu was not composed to be part of the seder. It does not conform to the basic structure of the Haggadah—מתחיל בגנות ומסיים בשבח “beginning with condemnation and ending with praise”—nor does it refer to any of the biblical descriptions of suffering and servitude in Egypt, which is the bread (matzah?) and butter of the seder story. Instead, Dayenu contains only praise of God.

In addition, Goldschmidt conjectures that, although Dayenu does not appear in classical rabbinic sources, it was composed during the Second Temple period, because the “crowning glory” of its praise, the last stanza, is the building of the temple in Jerusalem, but it makes no mention of the temple’s destruction and expresses no yearning for its future reconstruction:

אִלּוּ הִכְנִיסָנוּ לְאֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל וְלֹא בָנָה לָנוּ אֶת בֵּית הַבְּחִירָה, דַּיֵּינוּ

Had He brought us into the Land of Israel and not built for us the Holy Temple, dayenu.

He also posits that Dayenu was initially sung when the first produce was brought to the Temple, as part of the bikkurim (first produce) ritual.^[2]

Melito of Sardis’ Peri Pascha and Jewish Ingratitude

In 1940, American classicist Campbell Bonner (1876–1954) compiled and published a 5^th century papyrus codex of a text called Peri Pascha, “On Pascha (=Easter)” (160–170),^[3] written by Bishop Melito of Sardis (ca. 100–180).^[4] Additional fragments of the text, a Latin summary, a nearly complete Greek version (Papyrus Bodmer 13), and a Coptic version have since been discovered. The content of Peri Pascha suggests that it may have been a “Haggadah” used by early Christians who also celebrated their Easter holiday on the same night as the seder.^[5]

Conceptually, several lines in Peri Pascha mirror themes present in Dayenu, inverting them as accusations against the Jews for being ungrateful:

^{On Pascha, 87–89} Ungrateful Israel, come to trial with me concerning your ingratitude.

How much did you value being formed by him?

How much did you value the finding of your fathers?

How much did you value the descent into Egypt, and your refreshment there under Joseph the just?

How much did you value the ten plagues?

How much did you value the pillar by night, and the cloud by day, and the crossing of the Red Sea?

How much did you value the heavenly gift of manna, and the water gushing from rock, and the giving of the law at Horeb, and the allotment of the land, and the gifts given there?

How much did you value the suffering ones, healed by his very presence?

Give me a price on the withered hand, which he restored to its body.

Give me a price on those blind from birth, whom he illumined by a voice.

Give me a price on those who lay dead and who, four days later, were raised from the tomb.^[6]

If Goldschmidt is correct in his dating, Melito’s intent could have been to invert Dayenu, but either way, he certainly aims to highlight the ingratitude of the Jews.

The Improperia: Ingratitude of Jews Enters Christian Liturgy

The Peri Pascha inspired the Improperia, “Reproaches,” a later poem similar to Dayenu in form, that was eventually included in the traditional Latin liturgy for Good Friday. It describes Jesus rebuking his people, the Jews, from the cross. Variants of the text are also found in Byzantine and Georgian rituals. The earliest extant text is a 7^th century Georgian variant.^[7]

Eric Werner (1901–1988) of Hebrew Union College—an eminent European trained Jewish scholar, who escaped the Nazi holocaust and eventually settled in North America and made notable contributions to musicology and ethnomusicology— compared Dayenu with the Latin version of the Improperia. He notes that both poems have 15 verses, and both include similar themes. Dayenu uses a key word to begin each verse: אִלּוּ (ʾIlu), “if.” From verse 3 on, the Improperia begins each verse with a key word word as well: ego, “I.”^[8]

Like Dayenu, the Improperia begins with the exodus theme, this time turned to an accusation of ingratitude. It follows the contours of Psalm 78, which recounts the history of Israel, focusing on God's miracles and the people of Israel’s ingratitude and rebellion. The song begins with a quote from Micah, which is repeated after each stanza:

^{Verse 1} “My people, what have I done to you? And in what way have I saddened you? Answer me!” (Mic 6:3)^[9] Because I led you out of Egypt, you have prepared a cross to your savior.^[10]

Both texts also highlight key events in the exodus and journey toward Sinai, including the slaying of the firstborn:

אִלּוּ עָשָׂה בֵאלֹהֵיהֶם, וְלֹא הָרַג אֶת בְּכוֹרֵיהֶם, דַּיֵּינוּ.

Had He destroyed their gods and not slain their firstborn, dayenu.

אִלּוּ הָרַג אֶת בְּכוֹרֵיהֶם וְלֹא נָתַן לָנוּ אֶת מָמוֹנָם, דַּיֵּינוּ.

Had He slain their firstborn and not given us their wealth, dayenu.

Improperia:

⁷ I have slain, because of you, the Egyptian through his first-born sons: and you have delivered me flogged.

In Improperia, this and subsequent lines are each followed by the choral refrain from Micah.

Following the Exodus narrative, the two texts next address the parting of the Sea:

אִלּוּ נָתַן לָנוּ אֶת מָמוֹנָם וְלֹא קָרַע לָנוּ אֶת הַיָּם, דַּיֵּינוּ.

Had He given us their wealth and not split the sea for us, dayenu.

אִלּוּ קָרַע לָנוּ אֶת הַיָּם וְלֹא הֶעֱבִירָנוּ בְתוֹכוֹ בֶּחָרָבָה, דַּיֵּינוּ.

Had He split the sea for us and not let us through it on dry land, dayenu.

אִלּוּ הֶעֱבִירָנוּ בְתוֹכוֹ בֶּחָרָבָה וְלֹא שִׁקַּע צָרֵנוּ בְּתוֹכוֹ, דַּיֵּינוּ.

Had He let us through it on dry land and not drowned our oppressors, dayenu.

אִלּוּ שִׁקַּע צָרֵנוּ בְּתוֹכוֹ וְלֹא סִפֵּק צָרְכֵּנוּ בַּמִּדְבָּר אַרְבָּעִים שָׁנָה, דַּיֵּינוּ.

Had He drowned our oppressors and not provided for our needs in the desert for 40 years, dayenu.

Improperia:

⁸ I led you out of Egypt after having drowned the Pharaoh in the Red Sea: and you have delivered me to the princes of the priests.

⁹ I have opened the sea before you; and you have opened my body with a lance.

¹⁰ I went before you in the column of the fiery cloud: and you have led me to the tribunal of Pilate.

Both also include the provision of manna:

אִלּוּ סִפֵּק צָרְכֵּנוּ בַּמִּדְבָּר אַרְבָּעִים שָׁנָה ולֹא הֶאֱכִילָנוּ אֶת הַמָּן, דַּיֵּינוּ.

Had He provided for our needs in the desert for 40 years and not fed us manna, it would have sufficed us, dayenu.

Improperia:

¹¹ I fed you with Manna in the desert: and you fell on me with slaps and whips.

The final verses of dayenu highlight the Sabbath, Sinai, law-giving, land, and Temple.^[11] The Improperia also addresses Israel’s history, but with a slightly different focus, covering the waters of Meribah, conquest of the land, and rise of the kingdom of Israel:

¹² I gave you to drink the waters of grace from the rock: and you gave me gall and vinegar to drink.

¹³ I have hit, for your sake, the kings of Canaan: and you have hit my head with a stick.

¹⁴ I granted you the royal sceptre: and you granted me a crown of thorns.

¹⁵ I have exalted you with great strength: and you have hanged me at the gallows of the cross.

Werner concludes:

Most of these motifs will be very familiar to the Jewish reader; they sound like an anti-Jewishly twisted version of Dayenu. Indeed, if we were to seek for a name of this strange form, we might call it a midrashic litany on God’s benefits and on the Passion of Christ, interwoven with each other. Strictly speaking, it is a parody, in the classic sense of the term, of the Dayenu of the Haggadah.^[12]

The prevailing view that Improperia was mocking Dayenu was used in a 1961 appeal by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) to have Improperia expunged from the Catholic liturgy.^[13] The appeal addresses offensive liturgy more broadly, but notes:

The most dramatic of all litanies are the Improperia. These verses, which represent the crucified Jesus indicting his own people in powerful and emotional, language, have a strong potential anti-Jewish impact; unfortunately, the commentaries and homilies on this litany almost invariably interpret the indictment as directed solely against the Jewish people. (From the viewpoint of the Jewish scholar, the Improperia are particularly offensive because they are a deliberate inversion of a Jewish prayer of thanksgiving to God.)

In 1976, this effort met with success.^[14] In recognition of the recommendation of the Committee on the Liturgy of the Catholic Bishops that the Improperia not be used that year during Holy Week, Rabbi Mark Tanenbaum, National Interreligious Affairs Director of the American Jewish Committee, Institute of Human Relations, wrote in a letter:

Both Passover and Easter are holy moments commemorating the spiritual as well as physical liberation of our peoples from bondage. I cannot but help feel that the removal of this historically-conditioned “Improperia” prayer with memories of polemics, antagonisms, and hostility toward the Jewish people will constitute a significant act of spiritual liberation whose fruits ultimately will be a weakening of the roots of anti-Judaism and a fostering of a new spirit of mutual respect and solidarity between the Catholic and Jewish peoples.^[15]

The Improperia was further banned from other ceremonies as well by the Episcopal committee on liturgy.^[16]

Dayenu as a Response to Improperia

While the Improperia is certainly a negative portrayal of Jews, is it really clear that it responds to Dayenu? In his now classic work on the Haggadah, Israel Yuval of Hebrew University suggested the inverse development: Dayenu is not an ancient liturgical song from the Second Temple period, but was written in the early medieval period in response to the Improperia and the serious charges it levelled against the Jews.

Yuval acknowledges that Dayenu was probably written long before the tenth century, when it first appeared in our literature. However, he asserts that it is unlikely that a Jewish text first attested in the 10th century is the source of a Christian theme found in the 2^nd century.^[17]

Both the Peri Pascha and the Improperia accuse the Jews of ungratefulness; the Jewish prayer denies this. Dayenu emphasizes gratitude for the magnanimity of God, for the many blessings bestowed upon the Jewish people during the Exodus and concludes with God building the Temple, a place to atone for all of Israel’s sins. The author of Dayenu, Yuval notes, wishes to emphasize that sacrifices and Temple are the atonements for sin, while Christianity hung the atonement on the crucifixion of Jesus.

Yuval’s view would also explain the extreme nature of Dayenu’s rhetoric, which sometimes borders on the absurd. For instance,

אִלּוּ קָרַע לָנוּ אֶת הַיָּם וְלֹא הֶעֱבִירָנוּ בְתוֹכוֹ בֶּחָרָבָה, דַּיֵּינוּ

Had He split the sea for us and not let us through it on dry land, Dayenu.

What possible benefit could there be in splitting the sea if the Israelites never cross it? In a simple hymn of thanks, it would be unnecessary to take such an extreme view of Israel’s gratefulness, but in a polemical defense of Jews, it makes sense.