Although the degree and level of Alexandre Tansman’s or his family’s involvement with Judaism and Jewish life has yet to be established, he made several forays into Judaically related music. In 1933, he composed Rapsodie hebraique, and after the war he wrote an oratorio, Isaie le Prophete (Isaiah, the Prophet; 1950), for which he created his own adaptations of the biblical texts. But his most overtly Jewish liturgical expression is probably this setting of ma tovu (in English translation), an introductory prayer text for the kabbalat shabbat (welcoming the Sabbath) and Sabbath eve services, which was commissioned by the Park Avenue Synagogue in New York and premiered there in 1946 by Cantor David Putterman and the synagogue choir as part of its annual service of new music.