jchat564

Actually, the composer of Ma Ahavti wrote into Mishpacha magazine, and Reb Chait responded! Here’s their interaction:

That’s My Song [EndNote / Issue 878]

In your Mega Succos edition, Rabbi Baruch Chait is quoted saying, “Not that long ago someone recorded ‘Kol Ha’olam Kulo’ and listed it on the jacket as a folk song. My immediate response was — ‘Wait, this is a mistake, I composed it.’ ”

How ironic! While learning in Slabodka Yeshivah (Bnei Brak) in the year 1970, I composed the well-known niggun “Mah Ahavti.” A year or two later the Kol Salonika band recorded “Mah Ahavti” and listed it on the jacket as a popular Israeli chassidic niggun.

My reaction then was probably the same as Reb Baruch’s: “Wait, this is a mistake — I composed it.”

However, I was and still am proud that my musical hero, Reb Baruch of the Rabbis’ Sons, felt my niggun was good enough to be recorded on his record.

Moishe Friedman, Toronto, Canada

Rabbi Baruch Chait responds:

Thank you for writing. Please accept a belated apology and request for forgiveness. Back when we were working on the album, we did a serious search, and at that time there was no easy way to find the composer of the niggun.

Incidentally, the same thing happened when I was helping organize New York Pirchei’s recording of “Eilecha.” Nobody knew who wrote that niggun. Years later, Sheya Mendlowitz found an original recording of Shlomo Carlebach composing the song. (Shlomo often didn’t remember his own niggunim because they were recorded on personal tape recorders and totally forgotten until someone recovered them.)

https://mishpacha. com/inbox-issue-881/