Ein kelohenu, ein kadonenu, ein kemalkenu, ein kemoshi'enu.
Mi khelohenu, mi khadonenu, mi khemalkenu, mi khemoshi'enu.
Node lelohenu, node ladonenu, node lemalkenu, node lemoshi'enu,
Barukh Elohenu, barukh Adonenu, barukh Malkenu, barukh Moshi'enu.
Atah hu Elohenu, atah hu Adonenu, atah hu Malkenu, atah hu Moshi'enu.
Atah hu shehiktiru avotenu, lefanekha, et qetoret hasamim.
Ata toshi’enu. Ata takum terakhem tziyon, ki 'et lechen'nah, ki ba mo’ed.
There is none like our G-d, There is none like our Lord, There is none like our King, There is none like our Savior.
Who is like our G-d? Who is like our Lord? Who is like our King? Who is like our Savior?
Let us thank our G-d, Let us thank our Lord, Let us thank our King, Let us thank our Savior.
Blessed be our G-d, Blessed be our Lord, Blessed be our King, Blessed be our Savior.
You are our G-d, You are our Lord, You are our King, You are our Savior.
You are the One before whom our fathers burned the incense of spice.
You will save us. You will arise and show mercy to Zion, for it will be the time to favor her, for the proper time will have arrived.
Late in July 2023 Barbara Shansby, one of the planners of the forthcoming High Holiday services at Mishkan Torah Synagogue, Greenbelt, Md., invited me to sing/lead Ein Keloheinu (“There is none like our G-d”) for the first day of Rosh Hashana. It was an honor I was proud to accept, and as a composer of some experience I decided to write my own musical setting.
My first musical choice was to set the text just for unison unaccompanied voices to be sung by the congregation, not by the choir.
Ein Keloheinu (in the Ashkenazic tradition) consists of six verses. In the most common version, verses 1, 3 and 5 share the same music, as do verses 2, 4 and 6 (with a modulation to the dominant key, then back to the tonic). The rhythm in all six is virtually identical. All this makes life easy for the congregation.
This seemed like a good idea, and I quickly recalled a theme I thought would fit the text like a glove. And it did. I couldn’t remember for the life of me where it came from, but it had a distinct flavor of Rachmaninoff. I got on YouTube and watched videos of the massive knuckle-buster 2nd and 3rd piano concertos — the melody was not there, but I was treated to Martha Argerich’s stunning performance of #3. Finally I made inquiries, and Cantor Phil Greenfield and another friend identified it as from the slow movement of Rachmaninoff’s 2nd symphony.
I chose D Major as a key, borderline high for altos and bases, borderline low for sopranos and tenors. Half the piece was now finished!
Next step: music for verses 2, 4 and 6. I inverted the D Major triad (D-F♯-A) to G Minor (D-B♭-G) and went on from there, each line in a downward progression like the odd-numbered verses. For the last line I dropped down a fifth from F♯ to B natural and cadenced in E Minor. Then, an implied A Major chord leads back to D Major.
This made perfect musical sense, but in practice, finding the low B natural proved difficult, so in 2025 I transposed the even-numbered verses from G Minor to E Minor.
The only problem: The sixth verse left me stranded in E Minor. But some research revealed that many Sephardic congregations add a 7th verse, which resolved the issue completely.
The piece was completed on August 18, and I led the congregation in singing it on September 16. How many of them picked it up (other than my wife and Cantor Phil), I don’t know.