[Avodah] To Atone for All our Sins

[Akiva Miller]

At the Seder, after Dayenu, we have a paragraph in which Dayenu is
summarized. "He took us out of Mitzrayim... and He fed us manna... and He
brought us to Har Sinai, etc etc and He built the Beis Habechira for us, to
be m'chaper for our avonos."

My daughter-in-law asked: Why do we need those last words? Let the list end
simply, like Dayenu itself did: "... and He built the Beis Habechira for us
[full stop]." Or, if some sort of editorializing is needed, let it be on a
positive note: "... where we can be close to Him" or "...where He can dwell
among us." But at this point in the Seder, (arguably) the very last words
of Maggid, where we have finally completed our trip from Genai to Shevach,
and from Yagon to Simcha, why do we sully the waters by mentioning our sins
(even if the context is forgiveness)?

My only guess is that these words serve as a bookend to Maggid's start ("In
the beginning we were idolators"), but that doesn't help much; is this
bookend really needed, or even helpful? Any other ideas?

Akiva Miller
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20210331/07e372c0/attachment-0002.htm>