Dayenu

Dayenu is a Jewish Passover song, a piyyut (liturgical poem) whose title means “it would have been enough” or “it would have sufficed.” The refrain Dayenu is repeated after each stanza as an expression of gratitude for God’s gifts to the Israelites during the Exodus and wilderness years.

The song’s structure consists of a sequence of miracles and blessings attributed to God. Each verse enumerates a divine gift and ends with the refrain Dayenu, signaling that even a single gift would have been enough to merit gratitude. Common themes include deliverance from slavery in Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, the providing of sustenance in the desert, the revelation at Sinai, and the giving of the Torah. Variants exist in different communities, with some editions adding or altering items or extending the list.

Origins and scholarship view Dayenu as a medieval-era liturgical poem whose exact authorship is unknown. It is associated with Ashkenazi and Sephardic liturgical traditions and appears in later Haggadah manuscripts and printed editions. While its precise earliest date is uncertain, it has long been part of the Passover Seder and has become a widely recognized symbol of gratitude for a sequence of divine acts.

In contemporary practice, Dayenu is commonly sung after the Maggid portion of the Seder and is performed in many Jewish communities around the world. It has numerous melodic settings and translations, and remains a centerpiece of communal singing that reinforces themes of gratitude, memory, and redemption associated with the Passover narrative.