Fifteen steps out of Egypt, and after each one the table shouts the same word: it would have been enough. Enough for what, exactly, is left unsaid, and that is the argument. The song does not claim that any single step would really have sufficed — you cannot leave Egypt and stop at the edge of the sea. It claims that each one, taken on its own, would have deserved thanks. Grammatically it is the easiest long text in the Haggadah: the same two-clause frame fifteen times, and the second half of one verse becomes the first half of the next.
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♪ TuningE A D G B E
Key: Am · 3 chords used ·Am · Dm · E
120 BPM · 4/4 · the loudest thing in the first half of the seder · fifteen steps, each ending on the same word, and the table shouts that word · to reset the chord panel:
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1 · how many
כַּמָה מַעֲלוֹת טוֹבוֹת לַמָּקוֹם עָלֵינוּ
כַּמָה
ka-MA
how many
מַעֲלוֹת
ma-a-LOT
degrees of
טוֹבוֹת
to-VOT
good
לַמָּקוֹם
la-ma-KOM
for the Place, that is, for God
עָלֵינוּ
a-lei-NU
upon us
|Am|EAm|
How many good favours the Place has done for us!
לַמָּקוֹם (la-ma-kom) is one of the old names for God, literally "the Place", and it is the one the Haggadah uses here. מַעֲלוֹת (ma-a-lot) means steps or degrees — the favours are being counted as a staircase, which is exactly what the next fifteen verses climb.
Had He brought us out of Egypt and not carried out judgements against them — enough for us!
The frame: if He had done X and not done Y, dayenu. Every following verse takes the Y of this one and makes it the X of the next, so the song is a chain and you always know what comes first.
Had He fed us the manna and not given us the Sabbath — enough for us!
The Sabbath arrives between food and revelation, before Sinai. In this ordering it is not a commandment given at the mountain; it is something handed over in the desert, with the manna.
Had He brought us before Mount Sinai and not given us the Torah — enough for us!
Standing at the mountain and receiving what was said there are counted as two separate favours. That separation is the boldest line in the song: arriving would have been enough.
Had He brought us into the land of Israel and not built us the Temple — enough for us!
The staircase ends at the Temple, which is the one item on the list that is not standing today. The song counts it anyway, in the past tense, alongside fourteen things that happened.
How much more so, doubled and redoubled, is the goodness of the Place toward us:
שֶׁהוֹצִיאָנוּ
she-ho-tzi-a-NU
that He brought us out
מִמִּצְרַיִם
mi-mitz-RA-yim
from Egypt
וְעָשָׂה
ve-a-SA
and He carried out
בָהֶם
VA-hem
against them
שְׁפָטִים
shfa-TIM
judgements
וְעָשָׂה
ve-a-SA
and He acted
בֵאלֹהֵיהֶם
ve-lo-HEI-hem
against their gods
וְהָרַג
ve-ha-RAG
and He killed
אֶת
et
(marks the object)
בְּכוֹרֵיהֶם
be-cho-REI-hem
their firstborn
וְנָתַן
ve-na-TAN
and He gave
לָנוּ
la-NU
to us
אֶת
et
(marks the object)
מָמוֹנָם
ma-mo-NAM
their wealth
וְקָרַע
ve-KA-ra
and He split
לָנוּ
la-NU
for us
אֶת
et
(marks the object)
הַיָּם
ha-YAM
the sea
וְהֶעֱבִירָנוּ
ve-he-e-vi-ra-NU
and He brought us across
בְתוֹכוֹ
ve-to-CHO
through the middle of it
בֶּחָרָבָה
be-cha-ra-VA
on dry ground
|Dm|Am|
that He brought us out of Egypt, and carried out judgements against them, and against their gods, and killed their firstborn, and gave us their wealth, and split the sea for us, and brought us through it on dry ground,
וְשִׁקַּע
ve-SHI-ka
and He sank
צָרֵנוּ
tza-re-NU
our oppressors
בְתוֹכוֹ
ve-to-CHO
through the middle of it
וְסִפֵּק
ve-si-PEK
and He supplied
צָרְכֵּנוּ
tzar-ke-NU
our needs
בַּמִדְבָּר
ba-mid-BAR
in the wilderness
אַרְבָּעִים
ar-ba-IM
forty
שָׁנָה
sha-NA
years
וְהֶאֱכִילָנוּ
ve-he-e-chi-la-NU
and He fed us
אֶת
et
(marks the object)
הַמָּן
ha-MAN
the manna
וְנָתַן
ve-na-TAN
and He gave
לָנוּ
la-NU
to us
אֶת
et
(marks the object)
הַשַּׁבָּת
ha-sha-BAT
the Sabbath
וְקֵרְבָנוּ
ve-ker-va-NU
and He brought us near
לִפְנֵי
lif-NEI
before
הַר
har
mount
סִינַי
si-NAI
Sinai
וְנָתַן
ve-na-TAN
and He gave
לָנוּ
la-NU
to us
אֶת
et
(marks the object)
הַתּוֹרָה
ha-to-RA
the Torah
|Dm|E|
and sank our oppressors in it, and supplied our needs in the wilderness for forty years, and fed us the manna, and gave us the Sabbath, and brought us before Mount Sinai, and gave us the Torah,
וְהִכְנִיסָנוּ
ve-hich-ni-sa-NU
and He brought us into
לְאֶרֶץ
le-E-retz
the land of
יִשְׂרָאֵל
yis-ra-EL
Israel
וּבָנָה
u-va-NA
and He built
לָּנוּ
la-NU
for us
אֶת
et
(marks the object)
בֵּית
beit
the house of
הַבְּחִירָה
hab-chi-RA
the choosing
לְכַפֵּר
le-cha-PER
to atone
עַל
al
for
כָּל
kal
all
עֲוֹנוֹתֵינוּ
a-o-no-tei-NU
our wrongs
|AmE|Am|
and brought us into the land of Israel, and built us the house of the choosing, to atone for all our wrongs.
The last verse withdraws the whole argument, politely. Each step alone would have been enough — and He did all of them. Note the grammar shift: the fifteen verses used אִלּוּ (i-lu), "if", a hypothetical; this one uses שֶׁהוֹצִיאָנוּ (she-ho-tzi-a-nu), "that He did", a plain statement of fact. Fifteen verses of counterfactual, then one of indicative.
♫ Singing notes
The word דַּיֵּנוּ (da-ye-nu) is shouted, not sung, and it is shouted by everyone including the people who are not following the Hebrew. Leave a beat for it.
Many tables sing the word three times at the end of each verse. Some sing it once. Follow the house.
The first half of each verse is the second half of the one before, so a table that has lost its place can always rejoin at the next אִלּוּ (i-lu).
The final verse is not shouted. It is read or sung straight through, and it is noticeably longer than everything before it — do not let the room start clapping.
♦ About this song
Where it sits
In the Magid section, after the recounting of the plagues and before the explanation of the Passover offering, matzah and bitter herbs. It is the moment the seder stops being a lesson and becomes a party, which is roughly halfway through the evening.
The claim it is making
Read strictly, several steps could not have stood alone — the sea without the crossing, Sinai without the Torah. The song is not making a logical claim about sufficiency but a claim about gratitude: that each item deserves its own thanks rather than being absorbed into the total. The final verse then supplies the total anyway.
Fifteen
The number of steps matches other fifteens in the seder — the fifteen sections of the evening, the fifteen Songs of Ascents in Psalms, the fifteen steps of the Temple. Whether that is design or a pattern read in afterwards is not something this page can settle.
Hebrew: Haggadah, Magid, Dayenu · Pesach Haggadah · Public Domain, via Sefaria, pinned in this repo at content/songs/source/021.json.
English gloss lines authored for this site; the source translation is used as raw material only. Transliteration generated by this site's own engine (assets/translit.js).