At seder on Monday and Tuesday nights, we sang “Dayeinu,” the
Passover song that thanks G-d for the many, many things that G-d
has done for us. It’s a review of everything that happened to
get us out of slavery in Egypt and into Israel where the temple
was built. (Good for G-d, the song ends before those pesky
temple destructions.) Dayeinu means, approximately, “it would
have sufficed!” The verses take the form of, “If G-d had just
done X and not Y, dayeinu!” So we sing, “If G-d had split the
sea for us and not led us through on dry land, dayeinu!” “If G-d
had led us to Mount Sinai and not given us the Torah, dayeinu!”
But these are absurd things to say. It would have been enough
for G-d to create an escape route from the Egyptians but not
actually vouchsafed it to us? It would have been enough for G-d
point the way to a random mountain in the desert . . . for no
reason at all? Many have offered feasible explanations for each
of these statements. On Tuesday, for instance, my seder host
shared what she had hea