No matter where she is no Jewish woman stands alone when she lights the Shabbos candles — the mitzvah connects her across millennia as she makes her requests in the merit of Sarah Rivkah Rochel and Leah. This great weekly opportunity for a woman’s tefillah wasn’t lost on singer Uri Davidi the first time he prepared the Shabbos licht for his wife after their wedding five years ago

The words “Ana shema techinasi ba’eis hazos bizchus Sarah Rivkah Rochel veLeah” in the tefillah women recite after lichtbentshen jumped out at him and he just knew he had to compose a song. But although others liked it the original tune failed to satisfy him.

“For four years I kept it on the back burner. I knew these powerful words would make a great song but the tune I had just wasn’t the right one ” Davidi recalls. “Then last Shavuos on the way home from shul I tried again. In those six minutes I came up with a new niggun which was a much better fit for ‘Ana Shema.’ I knew it would be a great addition to the album I was working on and baruch Hashem the producer liked it too.”

The gentle soul-stirring “Ana Shema” is the only song that Davidi composed on his debut album Halevai; other songs are by composers such as Motty Ilowitz Yitzy Waldner and Elie Schwab. “I’m definitely a singer not a composer ” he says.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha Issue 684)