Enough With 'Dayenu'

The Dayenu poem reminds us of our exceptional capacity for never-ending kvetchy ingratitude. Liberated from crushing enslavement? Terrific. Now where are the leeks? 

The Haggadah, and the Seder itself, teach us the meaning and the purpose of freedom. That freedom comes with a cost, a responsibility: gratitude. Our capacity for gratitude is one true measure of just how free we are.
   
Rabbi Harold Kushner writes: “Can you see the holiness in those things you take for granted--a paved road or a washing machine? If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.”

Pablo Neruda wrote “Ode to my Socks” and “Ode to an Onion,” among the many odes he wrote about the everyday things that we barely consider and surely never stop to grasp with a sense of wonder.

“We thank You…for your everyday miracles and for Your wonders and favors in every season…” is recited in the Amidah. But do we really? The ArtScroll Siddur commentary points out that “miracles” mean the exceptional and the extraordinary that hold us in thrall, and “wonders” are the everyday that we tend to ignore. How easy it is to walk through life attending to nothing unless we are hit over the head with it.

I am among the thousands of commuters who found themselves scrambling to get into the city for work this week after the mishap in Penn Station when a train jumped the tracks. I’ve been amazed how one little event such as this could create such havoc and disruption to the lives of so many. 

It also dawned on me how little attention I’ve ever paid to how many things must go right for me to experience an ordinary commute.  I should say a bracha every day when exiting the train.  

Gratitude is not just a response to the exceptional; it can and should be a discipline, that helps bring order (seder) and give meaning and purpose to our lives every single day.    

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously.”   The only way to accomplish that is to slow down and take the time to develop the habit of noticing all the good things that surround you and those you love.

This is what freedom is for.  Let our “seders” help us develop the discipline of gratitude that will expand our world and the world of everyone whose lives we touch.  

Robert Sherman is CEO of The Jewish Education Project.