December Hebrew School
12/6 School at 3, 4, & 5:00 pm
12/13 School at 3, 4, & 5:00 pm
12/20 School at 3, 4, & 5:00 pm
12/27 NO Hebrew School
12/6 School at 3, 4, & 5:00 pm
12/13 School at 3, 4, & 5:00 pm
12/20 School at 3, 4, & 5:00 pm
12/27 NO Hebrew School
The Hadassah Hanukah Luncheon will be Thursday, December 14 at 12:00 noon at Bangkok Thai Restaurant.
BY CANTOR MARSHALL PORTNOY AND RABBI GERI NEWBURGE , 12/04/2017
As we approach Israel at 70, it is appropriate to consider the country’s national anthem, “Hatikvah,” a famous piece of music that was not officially adopted as the country’s anthem until 2004. There are other surprises connected to this piece. Most notably, the music is not original, and the words were penned, more than 130 years before they became the anthem, by a troubled poet who died in utter poverty in New York City in 1909.
The melody of “Hatikvah” comes from no one source. Samuel Cohen (1870-1940), a Zionist who emigrated to Palestine in 1888, had read Naftali Herz Imber’s poem, “Tikvatenu,” and was inspired to set the words to music. He did not compose an original melody, however, noting, as translated by the music scholar Edwin Seroussi, “In my home country [in northwest Rumania today], we used to sing in the choir the Rumanian song ‘Hâis, cea!’ (‘Right, Left!’ which was the refrain of a song entitled ‘Carul cu Boi’).”
Indeed, the melody of “Hatikvah” was inspired by Eastern European folk music. Its pattern is familiar to singers and scholars, and finds its way into many European songs and instrumental music. In sum, it is an old melody that originated somewhere in Europe and made its way to Palestine. That is the dynamic and destiny of many melodies: they travel. The music for America’s anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” for example, has its origins in a British drinking song.
Although we can’t source the melody, we certainly know who wrote the words. In Zloczow, Galicia, in 1856, Imber was born into a Hasidic family. In his 20s, he found his way out of the shtetl, venturing first to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and in 1882 to Palestine. He became a well-regarded poet who, in 1886, published a collection of poems called Barkai (Morning Star). Among those poems was a nine-verse opus entitled “Tikvatenu,” two verses of which found their way into Cohen’s setting. Slightly altered, they are the verses we sing to this day.
Imber was a complicated, flawed individual who nevertheless encapsulated the dream of a Jewish homeland in an unforgettable poem. Although he claimed that he, and not Theodor Herzl, was the real father of Zionism, Imber eventually spent some years in the United States, fighting alcoholism and accusations of heresy, and was married for a year to a Protestant self-proclaimed doctor.
Imber’s lyrics are a problem for the Israeli left and the Israeli right. The left maintains Israel is also the home of Arabs, including non-Jewish Knesset members, so how can Israel require them to sing or stand for an anthem that includes the words “nefesh Yehudi” (Jewish soul)? Don’t Arabs also have souls? The first non-Jew appointed to the Israeli cabinet, Saleh Tarif, would not sing the anthem. And as recently as 2012, Salim Joubran, an Arab member of Israel’s Supreme Court, refused to join in singing “Hatikvah” at an important official occasion. The right, on the other hand, cannot understand how there can be a Jewish anthem that doesn’t mention God!
What is indisputable about “Hatikvah,” however, is its power as an anthem – its stateliness, tempo, the sure confidence of the setting (a perfect marriage of words and music), and the melody’s incredible shift from a minor key to a major key. The past, the 16 measures depicting our history, is in minor. On the words “Od lo avda tikvateinu” (Our hope is not yet lost) it leaps to the major key – a leap of faith that says: we dreamt this dream and we are going to make it come true!
Indeed, juxtaposing minor and major keys is at the heart of Jewish music and the push-pull between the major and minor scales symbolizes the push-pull of the Jewish experience itself. Think as far back as the early prayer modes, then think ahead a millennium or two to “Jerusalem of Gold.” In that sacred continuum, the relatively unknown Samuel Cohen, in a moment of musical inspiration that changed history, set Imber’s words to music, using the same incredible shift.
Artistically and politically, “Hatikvah” is one of the greatest anthems ever written in western culture, ever a beacon of hope for all who understand what it is to be denied the rights to which they are entitled as human beings. As we sing it in 2018 and forever after, let’s remember how it came to be, an improbable but wonderful story!
Cantor Marshall Portnoy and Rabbi Geri Newburge are members of the clergy team at Main Line Reform Temple in Wynnewood, PA.
Published: 12/04/2017
12/1 John Barbarash
12/1 Hannah E. Nabow
12/1 Asher Nickelsberg
12/2 Marvin Hyman
12/4 Sylvia F. Gray
12/5 Charles Gelband
12/5 Elaine Shapiro
12/7 Seymour Feinstein
12/8 Clara Barbarash
12/8 David Fellerman
12/8 Martha Glazer
12/9 Samuel Figur
12/14 Samuel Price
12/14 Rabbi Laurie Skopitz
12/14 Fred Ostrower
12/16 Avrum Shmuel Chayim Ben Lazar
12/18 Max Lichtenstein
12/18 Frances Schwartz
12/19 Paula Rabiner
12/20 Edward Kassower
12/21 Phil Harry Singer
12/22 Sylvan M. Jack Cohen
12/22 Morris Siegel
12/23 Tiffany Greenfield
12/24 Sarah From Freedland
12/24 Sondra Pincus
12/25 Wanona O. Steel
12/26 Rivie L. Levin
12/26 Alice L.H. Smith
12/26 Morris Yoffe
12/27 Louis Cohen
12/27 Sigmund Witz
12/28 Moshe Price
12/30 Clara S. Cohen
12/30 Daisy Schoer
12/30 Louis Zeidman
12/31 Nettie Gelfand
12/31 Joseph Mann
12/31 Seymour Rosenberg
Class 12/3 9:20 Hebrew, 10:00
Class 12/10 9:20 Hebrew, 10:00
Class 12/17 9:20 Hebrew, 10:00
12/24 NO Sunday School
12/31 NO Sunday School
12/3 Shannon Smiley
12/20 Louise Garrell
12/5 Marilyn Bornstein
12/21 Greg Feldman
12/7 Ariella Garrell
12/23 Jake Levi Orseck
12/14 Bogdan Gheorghiu
12/25 Noah McKinney
12/15 Stefanie Keen
12/26 Jack Steinberg
12/15 Sharon Packer
12/29 Louis Carnevale
12/15 Alexandra Poliakoff
12/29 Elaine Hyman
12/18 Richard Keen
12/31 Dave Wood
December 1 & 2 Friday: Kabbalat Shabbat 6:00 pm, Refreshments at 5:30
Saturday: Morning Service
December 8 & 9 Friday: Service at 7:30 pm
Saturday: Morning Service 9:30 am
December 15 & 16 Friday: Hanukkah Dinner 6:00 pm
Saturday: Morning Service 9:30 am
December 22 & 23 Friday: Kabbalat Shabbat 6:00 pm Refreshments at 5:30
Saturday: Morning Service 9:30 am
December 29 & 30 Friday: Kabbalat Shabbat 6:00 pm Refreshments at 5:30
Saturday: Morning Service 9:30 am
Dear Friends,
My favorite pop online magazine is called Tablet. It covers news from the Mideast to America and parts in-between. Though more cultural than religious Tablet does favor from time to time some spiritual reviews such as an occasional Talmudic response to current concerns affecting Jews.
At the time of writing, and I believe in anticipation of Chanukah, the hate-filled pronouncements by the Nation of Islam Farrakhan were reviewed.
Homophobic and anti-Semitic, this “minister” spews out his hatred through Twitter to nearly one half million followers. Some examples include: his referring to Jews as “Satanic” and claiming that they control most industries and many nations with their secret cabal; Farrakhan has described Adolf Hitler as “a very great man” and has repeatedly argued that the 9/11 attacks were a Jewish conspiracy.
On the other side of the racial divide come the hatemongering actions of White supremacist Richard Spencer. His sanitized pronouncements are offered in the name of authentic white pride called the “Identarian Movement.” His vitriol includes his advocating for a white homeland for the “dispossessed white race” and calling for “peaceful ethnic cleansing” to halt the “deconstruction” of European culture. As a featured speaker at the Charlottesville demonstrations, Spencer’s followers often use the hated Nazi salute and pronouncements of “blood and soil.” That anyone would embrace an ideology that caused the death of millions upon millions boggles the imagination.
As Chanukah approaches we are reminded of the twin concerns which the celebration embraces: the first is the preservation of the Jewish people and its faith and the second is the support given to the notion of freedom. The American experiment has similarly championed these endeavors which regrettably come into conflict. On College campuses restrictions are being advocated to thwart hate speech. How to measure the unacceptability of one presentation against another is the troubling question of our times. To this end, many appearances by speakers for Israel have met with opposition and at times, censorship. It is a slippery slope that we slide down when we thwart free speech.
On the other hand we can become so open minded that our brains fall out. In this age of Twitter, Facebook and Snopes, I have no simple answers except to note that the complacency of many of our European brothers and sisters prior to the Holocaust is something we need not repeat. I have firsthand knowledge of the events in Charlottesville from a colleague and classmate. It was horrifying for him to see the neo-Nazis standing with an intimidating stance with guns outside his Temple.
It occurs to me that there are two Chanukahs of history, the one celebrating the spiritual light, the miracle of God’s light, and the other the prideful recollection of Jewish military resistance. I prefer the former to the latter. Some years ago, I saw in a Jewish home a menorah made out of a spent shell from the six day war. I was stunned to see this martial display, and not the more recognizable decorative and peaceful candelabrum.
I pray for the day when we will have the need for the one that spreads only light and not for the one that emphasizes our resolve to defend ourselves if necessary.
Wishing you a light filled season.
Rabbi Yossi J. Liebowitz