Sometimes the most beautiful songs come from the most unexpected places. “Like the song ‘Hamalach’ which literally landed on my doorstep” says Shloime Dachs of one of his best-known songs from two decades ago. “I opened my mailbox one morning to find a cassette tape of 16 songs all composed by a teenage bochur named Yisrael Boruchov.

The minute I heard him sing ‘Hamalach’ I knew it was a special song. But Abie Rotenberg’s famous ‘Hamalach’ from the Dveykus 4 album was already out there so I remember that when I played the new tune to Sheya Mendlowitz his first reaction was that he loved it but ‘you can’t have a song with the same words that Abie used.’

In the end we did use it on the One Day at a Time album — because when Hashem sends you a great song there will surely be enough room for another niggun too.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha Issue 691)