This song was first introduced to Chabad chassidim on Rosh Hashanah in 5716 (1955). Rabbi Nissan Pinson, then an emissary in Morocco, sang the song at the Rebbe’s behest. Composed by Rabbi Raphael Antebi Tabbush of Aleppo, it’s one of several piyutim, Hebrew hymns, popular with the Jews of North Africa on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
After the holiday ended, when it was permissible to write again, the Rebbe asked Pinson to write the words for him. The Rebbe would often request that Rabbi Yeshua Hadad, an early student of the Chabad yeshivah in Meknes, and Rabbi Aharon Tawil, of Argentina, sing “Ozreini Kel Chai” at Farbrengens.
In 1971, during the production of the eleventh Nichoach “Chabad Melodies” album, the Rebbe asked that the Sephardic songs “Ozreini Kel Chai,” “Atem Shalom” and “Adon Haselichot” be added as tracks.
When a large group of Soviet refugees from Uzbekistan came to visit the Rebbe in 1971, he asked that they sing a Bukharan melody. Rabbi Refael Chudidaitov, a leader of the Bukharan community, who helped save thousands of refugees from Eastern Europe during the Second World War, led the song.
Watch “Atem Shalom” sung at a Purim gathering. The stanzas are led by Chudidaitov
When Georgian chacham, Rafael Alashvili, Chief Rabbi of Kulashi, and other Soviet refugees from Georgia visited the Rebbe for the first time in 1971, he introduced this song to the wider Lubavitch community.
One of the oldest Selichot prayers, it is popularly said by Sephardic and Mizrachi Jews during the month of Elul during preparations for the High Holidays. The Georgian version has a unique refrain:
.אתם שלום ביתכם שלום, וכל אשר לכם שלום
“Who is this and where is He, this is my G‑d and I shall glorify Him!”