Naftali Herz-IMBER

Naftali Herz Imber -

Is said to look into the soul of the nation should listen to her national anthem. And even better - read the words of the hymn. They all - history, dreams, hopes for the future ...

. Twelve years of work in the Middle East as a correspondent for "Labor" and "Literary Gazette" I heard the music and words of the hymns of many Arab states and, of course, Israel
. And that's what I found ...

Despite the current bellicose image of the Jewish state, just arabic hymns are full of heroic notions such as glory, courage, struggle, victory. In Israel, on the contrary, no one valiant words, no nostalgia for the great kings, nor vosslavleniya heroism of the Maccabees or the courage to Bar-Kochba. Even there is no mention of the "chosen people".

All the dreams and hopes of the Jews are the same - to be free people in their own country. That's all ...

What's interesting - the words of the Israeli national anthem was written long before the proclamation of the state back in ... 1876. The author, who wrote the poem "Tikvateynu" ( "Our Hope"), later renamed the "Hatikva" ( "Hope") and became an anthem, it was little more than twenty.

... Mid-19 th century. Eastern Galicia. That region, which today is called the Lviv region (rather Lvivschinoy). In those times Lviv was the third Jewish. And next to him Zlochev place where Jews had long lived Hasidim (supporters of the religious revival movement that emerged in Eastern Europe in the 18 th century). At that time this region was crowded and stifling to free man. Jews lived here isolated and closed. Rays' Haskala "(" education ") with great difficulty and enormous losses their way through the clouds of the Jewish Middle Ages.

It was here in 1856, was born Naftali Herz Imber - bohemian personality, bright fairy. First - Jew. Secondly - poet. Thirdly - a man who could not sit on the ground. A word - maverick.

Poetry began to write in ten years. As evidenced by his biographers, then in Austria-Hungary was forbidden by law, any discrimination on religious grounds. And young Naftali wrote about the happy life of Jews under the shadow of the Austrian crown. And his first poem, born a few years, he devoted to the centennial of accession Bukovina to Austria. Emperor Franz Joseph was delighted with the praise of his poems and handed the throne to the young poet award.

Biographers also show that Naftali loved to drink, easy to acquire language and science. Everything is literally on the fly. But the regular education has not received. Systematic work was alien to him. But it was, according to contemporaries, people "fall in love and fall in love with himself."

In Zlochive Naftali Imber lived long. Restless nature, he went to see the world. Up to twenty-six years, traveled to Hungary, Serbia and Romania. And everywhere he wrote poems. On his perception of the environment, the Jews and - of course! - The thrust of their compatriots in Palestine, ancient Jerusalem, which sought to return the people of the Torah.

. Then one day, traveling to the Balkans, he met an Englishman, Sir Laurence Oliphant
. Coming under the influence of Naftali, Lord persuaded him to go together in Palestine - to create a Jewish state ". He offered the post of Secretary Imber on Jewish issues. And Naftali has agreed to. In 1982 they arrived in Palestine ...

Should say that it is only the number of secretary. Painfully been undisciplined, incapable of the even the daily work. That he needs a secretary. However secretarial salary received properly.

Naftali traveled around the country, saw Haifa and Jerusalem, went to Nazareth and Safed, climbed the slopes of Mount Caramel. The Holy Land inspired by Naftali Imber: the best poems he wrote there, in Palestine. Later, they entered the first collection of his works, published in Jerusalem. The book is called "Morning Star", as if symbolizing that Palestine was to the Jews of the world "the dawn of freedom and future happiness". The author has included in the collection, and several poems written before. Including set up in Romania Verses Tikvateynu.

"Our hope," he wrote in 1876. In one data, the poem was dedicated to the establishment in Palestine settlement Petach-Tikva. For others, writing "Hope" is associated with the opening in Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel) first-born Jewish industry - winery in Rishon Lezion.

. With regard to the melody of the anthem, the debate about the authorship continued (not subsided even today) many years
. It was believed that the motive for poetry picked himself Naftali Imber, using the melody of the Romanian shepherds. Many Israelis still believe that the music created the Jewish people. Art critics continue to argue that the melody of the national anthem is borrowed from the symphonic poem "Vltava, the Czech composer Smetana - say, some of the same musical phrases.

. It was only many years of searching has allowed historians to get to the truth
. When in Jerusalem, was published first collection of Imber, the most popular with readers got his poetry "Tikvateynu". The book fell into the hands of colonists from Rishon Lezion, unprofessional, as is, but a talented musician Kogan. It was he who wrote the words to the melody.

In short, the song (long before it became a hymn) has taken root in Eretz Israel, and healed their lives. She gained her wings, and soon her singing Jews all over the world.

Preserved memories of the first Jewish settlers who settled in Palestine, and those who are attracted by the ideas of Zionism, came there from Europe: "Hatikva" began to sing after 1885. The song was very popular, know about it in Poland and Germany, Russia and Romania, Hungary and France ... She sang the young men self-defense forces, who fought the Nazi invaders in the Warsaw ghetto. This song (the fact there were witnesses who had miraculously escaped the fire in the Holocaust, and now living in Israel) sang the Jews, driven in from all over the Minsk ghetto.

Six years have lived in Palestine Naftali Imber. Then again went to wander the world. The fact that Lord Oliphant died salary for idleness nobody paid. A bohemian man in a poor country without money to live easy (and nebogemnomu too). He traveled to Europe, some lived in London and then moved to America.

Standing not find work there, though traveled almost the entire country. He earned a living articles about Kabbalah and the Talmud, which he wrote in English, translated the Hebrew.

He was watching what was going on in the Old World. With sorrow greeted the news of the Jewish pogroms in Kishinev, Gomel, Melitopol. And as proud to learn that the mastermind of the Kishinev pogrom assassinated. Especially the fact that the offenses against a Jew. "Finally we have learned to respond to the pogroms - he wrote - as normal and the proud children of normal and proud people."

Fate Naftali Imber in America are not formed. Alcohol sank him deeper and deeper. Once in the United States held meeting of the American Zionists, which was the usual drunken Imber. He exhibited from the floor, and after meeting all got up and sang his song.

. - I was kicked out, but from my songs never get rid of - Naftali said, standing outside the door.

. And so it was ...

. Severe illness prevented completely reveal his poetic gift
. He died in New York in 1909 at the age of just over 40 years. During his lifetime he managed to release two more collections. "New dawn" was released in Zlochive, and "third dawn" - in New York.

In 1953, the poet's remains were transported to Israel and buried in Jerusalem.

A song is playing to this day ...