Page 6 - HaMizrachi #28 Pesach USA 2021

TORAT MIZRACHI

Rabbi Dr. Leonard A. Matanky

When Dayenu is Not Enough

hen I was young, there was a 10 years ago, Eldad’s son, former MK Dr. Israel for granted, we are complacent
set of books that was a favor- Aryeh Eldad, published a Haggadah with about its challenges and opportunities,
Wite bar mitzvah gift: Chron- lessons he learned at his father’s Seder. and assume it will always be there for us
icles. Written by Moshe Aumann and Entitled םִי ַ ר ְ צ ִּ מ ִ מ םי ִ א ְ צֹוי הֶּז ַ ה ה ָ לְי ַּ ל ַ ה (Tonight whether we are engaged in its struggles
Israel Eldad, Chronicles taught Jewish we leave Egypt), it includes a fascinating or not.
history through the medium of imagi- essay about the song of Dayenu.
nary newspapers, which bore headlines Eldad asks the famous question: how It is for this reason we don’t fight its bat-
such as “Abram Destroys his Grandfa- tles with the same fervor as our parents
ther’s Idols,” or “Maccabee Army Liber- can any of the 15 statements in Dayenu and grandparents. We don’t stand up
ates Jerusalem.” end with the refrain, “it would have been when Israel’s place among the world’s
enough”? How can leaving Egypt with- nations is challenged, and we don’t thank
Recently, as I was thinking about these out crossing the sea have been enough?
books, I wondered who the two authors How could getting to Mt. Sinai without G-d often enough or teach our children
were. receiving the Torah have been enough? passionately enough to appreciate Israel
enough – dayenu.
Moshe Aumann was born in Frankfurt Traditionally, the Rashba and Ritva
and escaped with his family to New York say dayenu means it would have been For this reason, Mizrachi’s mission is
in 1938. In 1950, he made aliyah and enough because we genuinely didn’t more important today than ever before.
soon afterwards co-wrote Chronicles. deserve more, while the Malbim wrote Eretz Yisrael needs us to dream big
Later he served with distinction in the it would have been enough of a reason dreams and looks to us to help bring
Foreign Ministry for 35 years, including to sing G-d’s praises and recite Hallel. those dreams to fruition. As Religious
three years as Israel’s Consul-General in However, Eldad saw Dayenu as a parody Zionists, we must never sit back on our
Washington DC. depicting the way we often compromise laurels and celebrate what was accom-
Israel Eldad was born in Poland in on our ideals. As proof, he looked to plished. Instead, we must combat the
1910, grew up in a traditional home and the last line of the song: if only G-d had attitude of a Dayenu world and reignite
studied in yeshiva. brought us to Eretz Yisrael and not built the passion, enthusiasm and zeal for a
the Beit HaMikdash – dayenu! Who dream that will bring us ever closer to
When he was just eight years old, Eldad could ever imagine such a scenario? redemption.
witnessed an event that shaped his life Who could ever hope to build, or rebuild
– the funeral procession for Jews mur- the Land, without the dream of a Beit As the Haggadah itself begins and ends
dered in the 1918 Lvov pogrom. Later, HaMikdash? No one! Dayenu, he wrote, – ה ָ א ָּ ב ַ ה הָנ ׁ ָ ש ְ ל – we must always look to
he joined his father protesting the 1929 is mocking what has become the com- the future with hope and with imagina-
Arab riots and became active in Beitar. placency of compromise, the willingness tion, never being satisfied with what “is,”
As a result, Menachem Begin invited to be practical and dream less, to forget always striving for what can “be.” This is
him to join the Warsaw chapter of what it means to seek all that is humanly the charge of Mizrachi – to anticipate
Beitar’s leadership, where he met Ze’ev possible and then imagine a little more. the future, to inspire our communities
Jabotinsky. Ultimately, he took an even We’ve become a people of dayenu, he and to bring the spirit of Torah towards
harder Revisionist Zionist stand, break- wrote, a community of enough and not the dream of a rebuilt Zion!
ing away from Begin and joining the all.
Lechi. In fact, shortly after the founding
of the State, Eldad was critical of the While Eldad’s Haggadah does take Rabbi Dr. Leonard A. Matanky is the
Irgun for not defending the Altalena, many untraditional twists and turns, Co-President of RZA–Mizrachi, Rabbi of
and much later, after the Six-Day War, the challenge he identified of Dayenu Congregation K.I.N.S. of West Rogers Park
Eldad was one of the founders of the is real. Because we live at a time when (Chicago) and Head of School of Ida Crown
Eretz Yisrael HaShleima Movement. too many take G-d’s gift of the State of Jewish Academy.

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