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Each year at the seder table, we sing Dayeinu, a rousing song that lists all of the things that God did for the Israelites beginning with the exodus from Egypt. Dayeinu means, “it would have been enough,” and the purpose of the poem is to express gratitude for everything God did. But if we look at each verse closely, we realize that actually, none of those actions alone would have been enough. It wouldn’t have been enough just for God to take us out of the land of Egypt, because the sea still needed to part. It wouldn’t have been enough just for the sea to part, because then we had to get to the wilderness. It wouldn’t have been enough to get to the wilderness, because God still had to provide manna for us to eat. The list goes on and on, and we realize-it is nearly impossible to imagine that it could ever be enough.

This week, I have thought of the concept of dayeinu again and again as we continue to wrestle with the right way to fight racism and support the black community. As Jews, we can listen and we can speak, we can learn and we can teach, we can march and we can protest. But we have to still ask ourselves - will we ever be able to say dayeinu? The answer is, sadly, clear: of course not. It will never be enough.

Yet that doesn’t mean we just stop. At my ordination ceremony, each graduating rabbi was able to choose one quote that most defined the rabbi they wished to be, and this was mine: “It is not up to you to finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.” These words, from Pirkei Avot, are the words that most inspire me, recognizing that while I may never be able to accomplish everything I want to do in this job, in this life, I’m going to still do as much as I can. And this is what we seek to do as a congregation today. We recognize that we may not be able to do everything that needs to be done to combat racism and inequity and violence in our country and in our community, but we’re sure going to try.

As your rabbis, this is not work we can do alone. Many of you have reached out over the past weeks with marvelous ideas that we’re excited to put into action, from speakers to groups to trainings. But we’d love to hear more. If you have ideas you’d like to share, or if you’d like to be part of a growing task force to help put ideas into motion, please email me with your thoughts and how you’d like to be involved. I’m looking forward to seeing what we’ll do next.

Reach out to Rabbi Amy: afeder@ti-stl.org