Letter from R. Silver about the Use of "Dayenu" in R. Lamm's Speech at the Exodus March (1970)
Norm, I'm one of your admirers and I'm sitting here chafing that I must miss the talk you're to give tomorrow morning at Roosevelt School here in Stamford. I'm sitting in my office Tuesday night and I've just read your stirring talk, Dayenu. It is a fine litany and splendid preachment. My compliments. Knowing your sense of nuance in things Jewish, don't you think that you've taken that precious word, dayenu, and although adhering to its syntactical meaning reversed the connotations it has in the Haggadah?I tell my people that the syllable da in the Haggadah is an expression of thanks, that we say in the litany, "O God, if only you had given us a smidgen of the many favors we enjoy," we should say da, that would have been enough.So this syllable of gratitude is turned around by you and made into an expression of exasperation. Get it?Chag sameach.