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/