Having already had a wonderful collaboration with the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, I was very excited when their Director of Music, Cathy Heller Jones, approached me with a request to set this beautiful prayer for peace. Although the prayer is nearly 2,000 years old, its sentiments are needed now, more than ever.

I use the first two lines as a refrain, which has a strong Jewish modal feel about it. Starting low and in a minor harmony, it rises and becomes more major, with an entreaty for hope....