Teach My Lips a Blessing
the music of Erik Contzius
Hineih Mah Tov
Text: Psalm 133:1 (English interpretation by Erik Contzius)
During my tenure at Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, we welcomed a new Rabbi, Lance Sussman, PhD, motivating me to write a work commemorating the moment. I asked Rabbi Sussman if he had a special text that he would like to highlight in song as a testament to what his new rabbinate at Keneseth Israel would be. He said that the 133rd Psalm embodied the appropriate spirit: Behold how good it is when we make a kehilah kedoshah, a holy community, together in harmony.
I first thought of writing a triumphant march, but instead wrote a real Jewish American anthem, with more than a nod to the American hymn, Shenandoah, clearly heard in the tenor line. The English words are my own liberal translation of the psalm.
Behold how good and how pleasant when brothers and sisters dwell together.
Behold how good it is when we dwell together, living as one people hand in hand.
What keeps us safe and strong is that we have each other.
The human family across the land.