Hatikvah

For the political party, see Hatikva (political party). For the Tel Aviv neighbourhood, see Hatikva Quarter.

הַתִּקְוָה

English: The Hope
HaTiqṿah
National anthem of	Israel
Lyrics	Naphtali Herz Imber, 1878
Music	Samuel Cohen, 1888
Adopted	1897 (First Zionist Congress) 1948 (unofficially) 2004 (officially)
Music sample
Hatikvah (Instrumental)

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Hatikvah (Hebrew: הַתִּקְוָה, Hatiq'vah‎‎, lit. The Hope) is the national anthem of Israel. The anthem was written by Naphtali Herz Imber, a secular Galician Jew from Zolochiv (today in Lviv Oblast),^[1] who moved to the Land of Israel in the early 1880s.

The anthem's theme revolves around the nearly 2000-year-old hope of the Jewish people to be a free and sovereign people in the Land of Israel, a national dream that would eventually be realized with the founding of the modern State of Israel in 1948.

History

Composition

The text of Hatikvah was written by the Galician Jewish poet Naphtali Herz Imber in Zolochiv in 1878 as a nine-stanza poem named Tikvateynu (lit. "Our Hope"). In this poem Imber puts into words his thoughts and feelings in the wake of the establishment of Petah Tikva, one of the first Jewish settlements in Ottoman Palestine. Published in Imber's first book, Barkai (lit. "Morning Star"), the poem was subsequently adopted as the anthem of Hovevei Zion and later of the Zionist Movement at the First Zionist Congress in 1897. The text was later revised by the settlers of Rishon LeZion, subsequently undergoing a number of other changes.

The melody, of folk origin (thought to be "Cucuruz cu frunza-n sus", Maize with standing leaf), was arranged by Samuel Cohen, an immigrant from Bessarabia.^[2]

The British Mandate government briefly banned its public performance in 1919, in response to an increase in Arab anti-Zionist political activity.^[3]

Adoption as national anthem

When the State of Israel was established in 1948, Hatikvah was unofficially proclaimed the national anthem. However, it did not officially become the national anthem until November 2004, when it was sanctioned by the Knesset in an amendment to the Flag and Coat-of-Arms Law (now renamed the Flag, Coat-of-Arms, and National Anthem Law).

In its modern rendering, the official text of the anthem incorporates only the first stanza and refrain of the original poem. The predominant theme in the remaining stanzas is the establishment of a sovereign and free nation in the Land of Israel, a hope largely seen as fulfilled with the founding of the State of Israel.

Music

The melody for Hatikvah derives, with modifications, from the La Mantovana, a 17^th-century Italian song, originally written by Giuseppino del Biado ca. 1600 with the text "Fuggi, fuggi, fuggi dal questo cielo". Its earliest known appearance in print was in the del Biado's collection of madrigals. It was later known in early 17^th-century Italy as "Ballo di Mantova." This melody gained wide currency in Renaissance Europe, the Polish folk song "Pod Krakowem"; and the Ukrainian "Kateryna Kucheryava."^[4] This melody was also famously used by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana in his symphonic poem celebrating Bohemia, “Má vlast,” as “Vltava” (Die Moldau).

The adaptation of the music for Hatikvah is believed to have been composed by Samuel Cohen in 1888. Cohen himself recalled many years later that he had adapted the melody from a Romanian folk song, possibly “Carul cu boi” (“Carriage with Oxen”)(itself deriving from "La Mantovana") which shares many structural elements with Hatikva.

The harmony of Hatikvah is arranged modally and mostly follows a minor scale, which is often perceived as mournful in tone and is rarely encountered in national anthems. However, as the title "The Hope" and the words suggest, the import of the song is optimistic and the overall spirit uplifting.

Official text

The official text of the national anthem corresponds to the first stanza and amended refrain of the original nine-stanza poem by Naftali Herz Imber. Along with the original Hebrew, the corresponding transliteration^[5] and English translation are listed below.

Some people compare the first line of the refrain, “Our hope is not yet lost” (“עוד לא אבדה תקוותנו”), 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; Šče ne vmerla Ukraïna). This line may also be a Biblical allusion to Ezekiel’s “Vision of the Dried Bones” (Ezekiel 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 lead them back to the Land of Israel.

The official text of Hatikvah is relatively short; indeed it is a single complex sentence, consisting of two clauses: the subordinate clause posits the condition (“As long as… A soul still yearns… And… An eye still watches…”), while the independent clause specifies the outcome (“Our hope is not yet lost… To be a free nation in our own land”).

Text of Tikvatenu by Naphtali Herz Imber

Below is the full text of the original nine-stanza poem Tikvatenu by Naftali Herz Imber. The current version of the Israeli national anthem corresponds to the first stanza of this poem and the amended refrain.

Media

Alternate proposals and objections

Religious objections to Hatikvah

Many observant Jews object to Hatikvah on the grounds that the anthem is too secular and lacks sufficient religious emphasis, such as not mentioning God or the Torah. Some Hareidim have mocked the song by switching the word "חופשי" (free, alluding to a secular Jew being free of mitzvot) with the word "קודשי" (holy), thus reading the line: "To be a holy nation", referring to the verse in Shemos 19:10 "וְאַתֶּם תִּהְיוּ לִי מַמְלֶכֶת כֹּהֲנִים וְגוֹי קָדוֹש" (you shall be for Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation). (Some religious Zionists also replace the word "חופשי" for the word "קודשי" but do so quietly and without intent to mock.) Others have gone even further by appending the words "תשחקו בכדור" (play ball) at the end of the song, to mimic the USA's practice of yelling "play ball" at Major League Baseball games following the singing of its national anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner".

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook objected to the secular thrust of Hatikvah and wrote an alternative anthem titled “HaEmunah” ("The Faith") in the hope that it would replace Hatikvah as the Israeli national anthem. Rav Kook did not object to the singing of Hatikvah (and in fact has endorsed it) as he had great respect for secular Jews, indicating that even in their work it was possible to see a level of kedushah (holiness).^[6]

Objections by non-Jewish Israelis

Some Arab Israelis object to Hatikvah due to its explicit allusions to Judaism. In particular, the text’s reference to the yearnings of “a Jewish soul” is often cited as preventing non-Jews from personally identifying with the anthem. Notably, Ghaleb Majadale, who in January 2007 became the first Arab to be appointed as a minister in the Israeli cabinet, sparked a controversy when he publicly refused to sing the anthem, stating that the song was written for Jews only.^[7]

From time to time proposals have been made to change the national anthem or to modify the text in order to make it more acceptable to non-Jewish Israelis; however, no such proposals have succeeded in gaining broad support.

References

External links

• Hatikvah – Hadracha Guide Jewish Agency for Israel
• Israel’s National Anthem – Hatikva Jewish Virtual Library
• Cucuruz cu frunza-n sus on Youtube
• Hatikvah on Youtube