Hatikvah
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| הַתִּקְוָה HaTikvah English: The Hope |
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|---|---|
| National Anthem of |  Israel |
| Also known as | Arabic: هاتكفا תקוותנו (Tikvatenu) English: Our Hope |
| Lyrics | Naftali Herz Imber, 1878 |
| Music | Samuel Cohen, 1888 |
| Adopted | 1897 (First Zionist Congress) 1948 (unofficially) 2004 (offically) |
Jewish and Israeli
  Music |
| Religious music: |
|---|
| Historical • Contemporary Piyyut • Zemirot • Nigun Pizmonim • Baqashot |
| Secular music: |
| Israeli • Israeli Folk Klezmer • Sephardic • Mizrahi |
| Not Jewish in Form: Classical • Mainstream and Jazz |
| Dance: |
| Israeli Folk Dancing • Ballet Horah • Hava Nagila • Yemenite dance |
| Israel |
| Hatikvah • Jerusalem of Gold |
| Piyyutim |
| Adon Olam • Geshem • Lekhah Dodi Ma'oz Tzur • Yedid Nefesh • Yigdal |
| Music for Holidays |
| Hanukkah • Passover • Shabbat |
| Music of the Haggadah |
| Ma Nishtana • Dayenu • Adir Hu Chad Gadya • Echad Mi Yodea |
| Music of Hanukkah |
| Blessings • Oh Chanukah • Dreidel Song |
| Al Hanisim • Mi Y'malel • Ner Li |
- For the political party, see Hatikva (political party). For the Tel Aviv neighbourhood, see Hatikva Quarter
Hatikvah (Hebrew: הַתִּקְוָה, The Hope; Arabic: هاتكفا), sometimes styled HaTikva(h), is the Israeli national anthem. The anthem was written by Naftali Herz Imber, a secular Galician Jew, who moved to the Land of Israel in the early 1880s. The anthem's underlying message is about "hope," the wish of attaining national independence in the Land of Israel. It is one of the very few national anthems set in a minor key.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Writing
The text of Hatikvah was written by the Galician-Jewish poet Naftali Herz Imber in Zolochiv (Ukraine) in 1878 as a nine-stanza poem named Tikvatenu (“Our Hope”) as an expression of his thoughts and feelings following the construction of Petah Tikva, one of the first Jewish settlements in Israel. Published in Imber's first book, Barkai (Hebrew: ברקאי, English: "morning star") the poem was subsequently adopted as the anthem of the Hovevei Zion and later of the Zionist Movement at the First Zionist Congress in 1897. The melody (of folk origin) was arranged by Samuel Cohen, an immigrant from Moldavia. The text was later revised by the settlers of Rishon LeZion, subsequently undergoing a number of other changes.
[edit] Declaration of the State of Israel
When the State of Israel was declared in 1948, HaTikvah was unofficially proclaimed the national anthem. It did not become the official anthem until November 2004, when it was sanctioned by the Knesset in an amendment to the “Flag and Coat-of-Arms Law” (now called “The Flag, Coat-of-Arms, and National Anthem Law”).
In its modern rendering, the text of the anthem includes only the first stanza and refrain of the original poem. The most significant element in the additional stanzas (in addition to the hope of returning to Zion, a hope being seen as fulfilled) is the establishment of a sovereign and free nation in Eretz Yisrael.
[edit] Rav Kook's objection to Hatikvah on religious grounds
Rav Kook objected to the secular over-bearings of Hatikvah and wrote an alternative anthem titled "HaEmunah", in the hopes that it would replace Hatikvah as the official anthem. Rav Kook did not object to the singing of Hatikvah (and even 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).[1]
[edit] Non-Jewish citizens
The anthem is rejected by many Ultraorthodox Jews and Arab Israelis, the former because of its lack of divine reference and the latter because of its Jewish emphasis. The specific reference to the yearnings of "a Jewish soul" is often cited as making the text impossible for a non-Jew to identify with. Notably, Raleb Majadele, the first Arab-Israeli appointed as a minister in the Israeli cabinet in January 2007, refused to sing the anthem, stating that the song was written for Jews only.[2]
Some Israelis have expressed reservations about the text, and on various occasions proposals were made to replace it, adapt or change the text, or compose a second anthem with words which all citizens of Israel could find acceptable. However, so far no such proposed anthem has come near to acceptance.
[edit] Music
The melody for Hatikvah has some similarities with “La Mantovana”, a 16th century Italian song. A 13th century manuscript records a similar melody (but in major mode) with words in Latin praising the Holy Trinity: "Alta Trinità Beata". Its earliest known appearance in print was in early 17th-century Italy as “Ballo di Mantova.” This melody gained wide currency in Renaissance Europe, being recorded variously as the Spanish hymn “Virgen de la Cueva” (“Virgin of the Cave”); the Sephardi melody for the Hallel prayer; the Hebrew folk song “ the Prayer for the Dew,” the Polish folk song “Pod Krakowem,” a Swedish folksong Ack, Värmeland; and as the Ukrainian “Kateryna Kucheryava.”. This melody had been famously used by Czech Bedřich Smetana in his symphonic poem celebrating Bohemia, "Má vlast", as "Vltava" (Die Moldau).
The adaptation of the music for Hatikvah is assumed to be composed by Samuel Cohen in 1888. He himself recalled many years later that he had adapted the melody from a Romanian folk-song, possibly “Carul cu boi” (“Carriage with Oxen”) which shares many structural elements with Hatikvah. In Romania there circulate several folk songs with this same melody: "Song of may" (Cântec de mai) is another of them ("Luncile s-au deşteptat... the valleys got awake)
Hatikvah is written in a minor key, which is often perceived as mournful in tone and thus rarely used in national anthems. However, as the title (“The Hope”) and the words suggest, the import of the song is uplifting and optimistic in spirit.
[edit] Current text
Below is the current text (first stanza and the amended refrain of the original nine-stanza poem) in Hebrew, along with a transliteration and translation.
| כל עוד בלבב פנימה נפש יהודי הומיה, ולפאתי מזרח קדימה, עין לציון צופיה, |
Kol od baleivav p'nimah Nefesh y'hudi homiyah Ulfa'atei mizrach kadimah Ayin l'tziyon tzofiyah |
As long as in the heart, within, A Jewish soul still yearns, And towards the end of the East, An eye still watches toward Zion– |
| עוד לא אבדה תקוותנו, התקווה בת שנות אלפים, להיות עם חופשי בארצנו, ארץ ציון וירושלים. |
Od lo avdah tikvateinu Hatikvah bat sh'not alpayim Lihyot am chofshi b'artzeinu Eretz tziyon viyrushalayim |
Our hope is not yet lost, The hope of two thousand years, To be a free nation in our land, The land of Zion and Jerusalem. |
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). However, this line is considered to 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. There is however no proof for this connection, and the Polish allusion is obviously much more convincing given Imber's background.
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 has not yet been lost...To be a free nation in our own homeland”).
[edit] Original nine-stanza poem
| Original nine verses of Hatikvah with transliteration and English translation | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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[edit] Media
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Vocal BBC recording from April 20, 1945 of Jewish survivors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp five days after their liberation (with the words at the end being the ones from the original poem and not the later anthem's) - Problems playing the files? See media help.
[edit] References
- ^ Rav Kook's Response to Hatikvah
- ^ Majadele refuses to sing national anthem. YNET News (2007-03-17). Retrieved on 2007-05-09. “I fail to understand how an enlightened, sane Jew allows himself to ask a Muslim person with a different language and culture, to sing an anthem that was written for Jews only”
[edit] External links
- [1]Hatikvah Hadracha Guide from Education at the Jewish Agency for Israel
- Hatikvah article from the Jewish Virtual Library
- Hatikvah - Most People Singing a National Anthem World Record
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