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 MAH TOVU 
Danny Maseng
Ruach 5761
Text: Numbers 24:5; Psalms 5:8, 26:8, 95:6 & 69:14
[Danny Maseng writes:] I wrote Mah Tovu for my son Jonathan’s Bar-Mitzvah. I wanted a melody that would be easy enough for a congregation to join in on the refrain and interesting enough during the verses for the cantor/soloist to sing week after week. I have always been intrigued by this prayer which opens our public services every morning. The opening words were written by someone who was not a Jew (and this is the ONLY such prayer), someone who came to curse our people and ended up blessing them instead. Bilaam's blessing serves as one of the most profound lessons I have ever learned: that even though I may not always be able to control what befalls me, I always have the power to turn the curse into a blessing. I hope my music somehow captures the grandeur of the blessing with the complexity of the underlying journey from curse to blessing, from darkness to light.
CHORUS
Mah tovu ohalecha Yaakov mishk'notecha Yisraeil.
VERSE 1
Vaani b'rov chasd'cha avo veitecha,
Eshtachaveh el heichal kodsh'cha b'yiratecha.
CHORUS
VERSE 2
Adonai ahavti m'on beitecha,
um'kom mishkan k'vodecha.
VERSE 3
Vaani eshtachaveh v'echraah,
Evr'cha lifnei Adonai osi.
CHORUS
BRIDGE
Vaani t'filati l'cha, Adonai eit ratzon.
Elohim, b'rov chasdecha aneini beemet yishecha.
CHORUS © by the composer. All rights reserved.
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