Dayeinu!! It Would Have Been Enough!! Appreciate not Crave!!

That’s what the Passover Seder is all about—appreciate what has happened, what we have, who we are, what our life is – do not crave for what was or for what isn’t or for what won’t be.  Take time during the Seder, during the time when you and your family are lustily singing Dayeinu, to pause and reflect on how you have made it to this table, to this Passover, to this gathering.

Consider the building blocks of the past year, the past five years, the past decade – possibly your entire life. Look around the table. Yes, there might be people missing. Death, divorce, dissension and distance can keep us apart. Regardless, each person, each event, is a building block of your life.

If I had my wonderful mother and father – it would have been enough!!
If I had my great third grade teacher – it would have been enough!!
If I had my new car at 16 – it would have been enough!!
If I had my college education – it would have been enough!!

You get the idea – fill in the list as far as you can. Start from the beginning and work forward or start from the Passover table and work backward. Even if you have to recognize that the building blocks in your life are those that made you strong enough to deal with the problems you are facing today.

Our culture does not run on Appreciate. It runs on Crave. Otherwise, what would be the point of all those commercials?? This year, as you sit at your Passover table, as you extend the first night’s Seder into the second night’s Seder, into the full eight days of Passover, try moving out of the Egypt of Crave and into the Promised Land of Appreciate.

Experience again Dayeinu!!

May we each be aware enough to know when we’re in Egypt and wise enough to know whom it is that can lead us to the Promised Land.

Rabbi/Cantor Anne Heath