Hatikvah
Hatikvah or
Hatikva (
Hebrew: ×"תקוו×",
The Hope) is the
national anthem of
Israel.
The
Hatikvah text was written by the
Galician-
Jewish poet Naphtali Herz Imber in
Zloczow (
Ukraine) in
1878 as a nine-
stanza poem named
Tikvatenu ("Our Hope").
In
1897, at the
First Zionist Congress, it was adopted as the
anthem of
Zionism; later it was arranged by the composer
Paul Ben-Haim, who based the composition partly on
Ukrainian Jewish folk tunes.
Later the text was edited by the
settlers of
Rishon LeZion and it underwent a number of other changes until
1948, when the state of Israel was
created, and it was proclaimed as the national anthem of Israel.
In its modern version, the anthem text only has the first stanza and chorus of the original poem. The most important addition in those parts is that the hope is no longer to return to
Zion, but to be a
free nation in it.
It is an interesting, but not widely known fact, that Hatikvah was not officially declared as or chosen to be the national anthem of Israel until November 2004, when it was sanctioned by the
Knesset in an amendment to the "Flag and Coat-of-Arms Law" (which is now called: "The Flag, Coat-of-Arms and National Anthem Law").
The music for Hatikva is based on a
folk song of unknown origin. The earliest known appearance in print was early
17th century Italy as "The Dance of Mantua". It has also been recognized in
Spanish religious music as the Catholic song "Virgen de la Cueva" ("Virgin of the Cave") and the Jewish song "Prayer for the Dew". It's also recognizable as the
Polish folk song "Pod Krakowem".
The folk song was also used by an
English-
Jewish cantor named Meier Leon, who used the stage name Michael Leoni to perform
secular and Christian music such as
Handel's Messiah. Leon adapted the song into the Jewish hymn
Yigdal for his synagogue. This hymn was later adapted by
Welselyan minister Thomas Oliver into the hymn
To The God of Abraham Praise.
Bedřich Smetana likely adapted the melody from a
Swedish version of the melody, "Ack, Värmeland" and used it for his symphonic poem "The Moldau", part of
Má Vlast. This later became a
Czech folk song, "KoÄka leze dÃrou".
The modern adaptation of the music for Hatikvah was probably composed by
Samuel Cohen in
1888. It's possible that he took the melody from Smetana's work, that he got the melody from a
Romanian version of the folk song, "Carul cu boi" ("Carriage with Oxen"), or from the
Hungarian arrangement "Tüzed, Uram Jézus" ("Your fire, my Lord Jesus").
Hatikvah is written in a
minor key, one that may seem depressing or mournful to some people. However, as the title ("The Hope") would indicate, the mood of the song is uplifting.
Here is the text in
Hebrew with accompanying
transliteration and
translation in English:
כל עו×" בלבב ×¤× ×™×ž×"
× ×¤×© ×™×"ו×"×™ ×"ומי×",
ולפ×תי מזרח ק×"ימ×"
עין לציון צופי×" - עו×" ×œ× ×ב×"×" ×ª×§×•×ª× ×•,
×"תקו×" בת ×©× ×•×ª ×לפי×,
ל×"יות ×¢× ×—×•×¤×©×™ ב××¨×¦× ×•
×רץ ציון וירושלי×. |
Kol 'od balevav P'nimah -
Nefesh Yehudi homiyah
Ulfa'atey mizrach kadimah
Ayin le'tzion tzofiyah -- 'Od lo avdah tikvatenu
Hatikvah bat shnot alpayim:
Lihyot am chofshi be'artzenu -
Eretz Tziyon vi'rushalayim. | As long as in the heart, within,
A Jewish soul still yearns,
And onward toward the East,
An eye still watches toward Zion --
Our hope has not yet been lost,
The two thousand year old hope,
To be a free nation in our own homeland,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.
|
There are people who claim that the first line of the chorus, "Our hope is not yet lost" (עו×" ×œ× ×ב×"×" ×ª×§×•×ª× ×•) has been compared to the opening of the
Polish national anthem "Poland is not yet lost" (Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła) or to the
Ukrainian national anthem "Ukraine has not yet perished" (Ще не вмерла Україна). Yet, this line is considered to be a biblical
allusion to
Ezekiel's "Vision of the Dried Bones" (
Eze 37: "...Behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost"), describing the despair of the Jewish people in exile, and God's promise to redeem them and bring them back to the
Land of Israel).
Hatikvah is quite short, it is a single
complex sentence, which consists of two clauses. The first clause sets out the condition: "As long as... A soul still yearns... And... An eye still watches...", and the second clause describes the outcome: "Our hope has not yet been lost... To be a free nation in our own homeland...".
*
Audio files*
MP3 file from the
United States Navy Band*
MP3 file Heavy metal re-interpretation by DJ Blood Sacrifice (Seth Diamond) of the New York metal band Gods of Fire procured for The View from Here Podcast.
*
MP3 file BBC recording of Jewish survivors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp five days after their liberation, with people still dying around them singing what would become the Israeli national anthem.
