Next Spring Jews around the world will again come together for the Passover Seder, a ritual meal during which the story of the exodus from Egypt is commemorated with the reading of the Haggadah.  The service also includes various songs, the most beloved of which is “Dayenu,”  which in Hebrew loosely translates into  “it would have been enough.”  After each verse beginning with, “If He (the Lord) had brought us out of Egypt and not carried out judgment against them,” all assembled respond “Dayenu.”  The final verse, “If He had brought us into the land of Israel and not built for us the Holy Temple, Dayenu.”

Even as a devout agnostic, I still enjoy the Seder for its cultural and historical significance.  In recent years, modern prayers have been added to the traditional text in which Jews acknowledge the Exodus is not complete until all people are free from slavery and persecution.  It is this universal message that Jews have not fully escaped the bondage of slavery until all share in our freedom which makes me still proud of my Jewish heritage and upbringing.

However, this coming Spring it will be more difficult to listen to the words of “Dayenu.”  I wonder if it is time to further modernize the Passover observance with a different song.  In Hebrew the title reads, “מספיק כבר” (transliterated mahs-peek key-bar).  In English, “Enough Already.”

Let me share a few possible verses.

Though Russian Jews were persecuted and driven from their homes by the czars and Bolsheviks, did six million have to die in the Holocaust?
מספיק כבר, Enough Already!

Though six million died in the Holocaust, did so many more have to die in wars to preserve the State of Israel, our homeland?
מספיק כבר, Enough Already!

Though many more died in wars to save our homeland, did Israeli athletes have to be murdered at the Munich Olympics?
מספיק כבר, Enough Already!

Though Israeli athletes were murdered at the Munich Olympics, did 11 American Jews have to be gunned down in their own synagogue?
מספיק כבר, Enough Already!

As Tevye the dairyman pleads in the musical Fiddler on the Roof, “I know, I know. We are Your chosen people. But, once in a while, can’t You choose someone else?”  Tevye, sadly your God has become less discriminating.  The chosen now include:

• elementary school children in New Town,
• gay patrons of The Pulse club in Orlando,
• fans of country music at an outdoor concert in Las Vegas,
• students at Mary Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland,
• participants in a bible study class at Emanuel AME church in Charleston,
• Amish girls in their school house in Nickel Mills, PA,
• members of a Sikh temple in Wisconsin,
• workers and children in day care at the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City,
• journalists and editors at the Annapolis Capital Gazette.

All victims of DOMESTIC terrorists motivated not by some disdain for capitalism or the American way of life, but rooted in hatred of fellow Americans.  Recruited, emboldened and enabled by our national discourse.   

So often, in times of tragedy, I hear religious leaders talk about how acts of violence and the attendant loss of friends and loved ones are God’s way of challenging us to be strong and to act to make the world a better place.  Christian clergy will refer to the New Testament passage in James 2:14, “Faith without works is dead.” Regardless of one’s motivation, spiritual or humanistic, perhaps it is time for all people of good will to declare, “מספיק כבר, Enough Already!”

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP