משה ודוד
The Story
I was once approached by a father of a boy whose name was Moshe Dovid ני”ו. As his son was becoming a Bar Mitzva, the father who loved Jewish music, contacted me to write them a song for the momentous event that would perhaps somehow relate the names Moshe and Dovid.
Being that the way I usually compose my melodies BS”D is that I first happen to encounter an exciting new text throughout my daily connection to Torah and only then, in my excitement to share it, will get to work on pairing it with a melody, this request was a bit unusual for me. But I immediately set out to look for Torah textual connections between Moshe Rabeinu and Dovid Hamelech.
How exciting and inspiring was it when I opened up the Sefer Midrash Tehillim and right at the beginning of the Sefer there it was: a kind of comprehensive and very moving list of similarities between our greatest prophet and our greatest king! After this, it didn’t take very long for the song to follow. All that was left was to pair the song with someone who could interpret the song in a powerful, heartfelt and moving way.
At the time, I was working with Yossi Tyberg on an album of new songs for Shragee ז”ל and when I played the song for them, Shragee went to the microphone, I sat at the piano and we heard magic in the studio that night. Mendy Hershkowitz joined the project as an arranger and the song was born!
Yossi
Composed by: Yossi Green
Arranged by: Mendy Hershkowitz
Backup Vocals by: Yossi Green
Produced by: Yossi Tyberg & Gershy Moskowitz
הַמְשׁוּבָּח בַּנְבִיאִים זֶה מֹשֶׁה
הַמְשׁוּבָּח שֶׁבַּמְלָכִים זֶה דָוִד
אַתָּה מוֹצֵא כָּל מַה שֶׁעָשָׂה מֹשֶׁה עָשָׂה דָוִד…
מֹשֶה מָלַךְ עַל יִשְׂרָאֵל וְעַל יְהוּדָה
וְדָוִד מָלַךְ עַל יִשְׂרָאֵל וְעַל יְהוּדָה…
מֹשֶׁה הוֹצִיא אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל מִמִצְרַיִם
וְדָוִד הוֹצִיא אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל מִשִׁעַבּוּד גָלוּיוֹת…
מֹשֶׁה נָתַן חַמִישָׁה חוּמְשֵׁי תּוֹרָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל
וְדָוִד נָתַן חַמִישָׁה סִפְרֵי תְּהִלִים לְיִשְׂרָאֵל.
(מדרש תהילים מזמור א