Well, faithful Watchmen & Prayer Warriors,
Our Lord is truly moving on all of us in the revelatory realm! Another one of our faithful, seer watchmen, sent the following:
- This morning as I was walking into the office, all of a sudden the national anthem of Israel began playing in my spirit – seemingly out of no where. I found myself singing the words and I don’t even know them.Something is up. Please pray for Israel today.
We all know we need to keep praying for Israel. Also, we are in the 5th day of Hanukkah, Festival of Lights, celebrating the victory of Maccabee’s and restoration of the second temple. The fifth night which can never be Shabbat, represents great darkness relative to the other nights. “Thus, the fifith light of Chanukah has the unique task and power to illuminate and instill spiritually even in such a time of darkness.” Rebbe
The Lord God Himself, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is highlighting the melody and lyrics of the Israel National Anthemn. Lets co-partner with our Lord for Israel, and the hope this anthemn converys NOW and each day.
WATCH, PRAY, PROPHESY as the Lord leads.
Love & Light, Janet
Hatikva-The National Anthem of Israel (click here to hear)
Lyrics
The text of Hatikvah was written in 1878 by Naphtali Herz Imber, a Jewish poet from Zolochiv, a city often referred to by its nickname “The City of Poets”, in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria,Austro-Hungary, today Zolochiv, Ukraine. NH Imber emigrated to Eretz Israel in the early 1880s and lived in two or more of the first Jewish colonies . The foundation of Hatikvah is Imber’s nine-stanzapoem named Tikvaten
Before the Establishment of the State of Israel
The British Mandate government briefly banned its public performance and broadcast from 1919, in response to an increase in Arab anti-Zionist political activity.
A former member of the Sonderkommando reports that the song was spontaneously sung by Czech Jews in the entryway to the Auschwitz-Birkenau gas chamber in 1944. While singing they were beaten by Waffen-SS guards.
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 asovereign 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 from La Mantovana, a 16th-century Italian song, composed byGiuseppe Cenci (Guiseppino del Biado) ca. 1600 with the text “Fuggi, fuggi, fuggi da questo cielo”. Its earliest known appearance in print was in the del Biado’s collection of madrigals. It was later known in early 17th-century Italy as Ballo di Mantova. This melody gained wide currency in Renaissance Europe, under various titles, such as the Pod Krakowem (folk song) (in Polish), Cucuruz cu frunza-n sus [Maize with up-standing leaves] (in Romanian) and the Kateryna Kucheryava (in Ukrainian).
The adaptation of the music for Hatikvah was done by Samuel Cohen in 1888. Cohen himself recalled many years later that he had hummed Hatikvah based on the melody from the song he had heard in Romania, Carul cu boi [The Ox Driven Cart].
The harmony of Hatikvah follows a minor scale, which is often perceived as mournful in tone and is rarely encountered in national anthems. There is a modulating shift to Major key as the words Tikvatenu and Hatikva appear, both mingled with a romantic octave leap which gives new dramatic energy to the melodic line. 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[
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English translation |
|---|---|---|
| כֹּל עוֹד בַּלֵּבָב פְּנִימָה | Kol od balēvav pənima | As long as in the heart, within, |
| נֶפֶשׁ יְהוּדִי הוֹמִיָּה | Nep̄eš yəhudi homiya, | A Jewish soul still yearns, |
| וּלְפַאֲתֵי מִזְרָח, קָדִימָה, | Ulp̄aʾatē mizraḥ qadima, | And onward, towards the ends of the east, |
| עַיִן לְצִיּוֹן צוֹפִיָּה, | Ayin leṣiyon ṣoviya; | An eye still gazes toward Zion; |
| עוֹד לֹא אָבְדָה תִּקְוָתֵנוּ, | Od lo avda tiqvatēnu, | Our hope is not yet lost, |
| הַתִּקְוָה בַּת שְׁנוֹת אַלְפַּיִם | Hatiqva bat šənot alpayim, | The hope of two thousand years, |
| לִהְיוֹת עַם חָפְשִׁי בְּאַרְצֵנוּ, | Liyot am ḥop̄ši bəʾarṣēnu, | To be a free people in our land, |
| אֶרֶץ צִיּוֹן וִירוּשָׁלַיִם. | Ereṣ-ṣiyon virušalayim. | The land of Zion and Jerusalem. |
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”).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 Ukrajina). This line may also be a Biblical allusion toEzekiel’