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My Tribal Heritage |
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“Tikvat Chut Ha’shani” - The Scarlet Ribbon of Hope |
The combined use of these three Hebrew words were first expressed prior to the Israelite conquest of Jericho, quoted in the Bible as Joshua 2:18. Throughout the centuries of our Dispersal, this distinctive phrase, The Scarlet Ribbon of Hope, reverberated among our people as a token of our ancient hope; the return to Zion. Passed on in my hearing as a child time and again, growing as I did in Israel, it clearly spoke of a most empowered, prayerful wish, ever on the lips of the secular pioneers of Zionism around me. These dedicated people, whose life change was of such an extreme nature from the European homes which they left, through the Scarlet Ribbon were bound by an everlasting umbilical cord, linking them to their Source, that which they never denied and for which, by their pilgrimage of devotion, they responded to, answering the call of these three words to revive and regenerate the Israel of old. “Ha’tikvah” - The Hope, Israel’s national anthem, written long before the State was declared, is an anthem like no other. In six short lines it articulates the essence of Jericho’s promise: Voices in the heart within Jewish soul is yearning Our hope is not lost yet The hope of two thousand years To be free people in our land The land of Zion - Jerusalem Strangely, a search for well-documented historical accounts of this most ancient and meaningful phrase yields very few results, even with the scholarly aid of rabbinical sources. Even so, the basics of the story are a matter of history. * God promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel to be his people on his designated land. * God guided Moses to liberate His people from Egypt and gave them the Torah on Mt. Sinai. * God empowered Joshua to unite Israel’s twelve tribes as His one people, under his given Torah on their land, a process which began during the conquest of Jericho. “Tikvat Chut Ha’shani” - The Scarlet Ribbon of Hope. This distinctive expression was originally coined by Joshua’s two spies as words of instruction, words of promise, words of oath to Rahav who sheltered them in Jericho. Placing the ribbon in the window of their escape guaranteed Rahav’s survival in the coming Israelite attack. The spies’ promise to Rahav came in response to her request for an oath of grace from them, in kind for her act of grace in aiding their escape, an exchange which endowed the Hebrew language with the term: “Chut Shel Hesed” - Ribbon of Grace, or, “a touch of Grace.” Referred to as the two teenage spies (Joshua 6: 23), they instigated an oath of promise combined with instruction, as well as a guarantee to spare Rahav’s life. (It is interesting to note how Hebrew traditional numbers were conveyed by the Hebrew alphabet, in which the number 18, as in chapter 2, verse 18, is spelled by the word Life. Both Rahav and the two boys were promised life, as an act of grace and truth on the part of each.) “Tikvat Chut Ha’shani” conveys the unique, multi-faceted symbolism of a crucial time, place, and event in Israel’s history like no other. On the eve of a decisive battle two youngsters had whispered it in response to an act of kindness, a promise which Joshua ratified (Joshua 6:25), a promise fulfilled notwithstanding God’s instruction of doom for all life in Jericho. Grace, kindness, and an oath of truth saved the lives of them all. Mercy was extended where destruction was imminent, and the Scarlet Ribbon was the sign that the oath would be kept. These three unparalleled words of such rich meaning have lived far beyond their day. Centuries on, after the Roman expulsion, it once more regained its ancient status. Revived again, its voice of hope resounded in us, down through our darkest ages. * “Tikvah” in Hebrew, is understood as Hope, Strap or Band. * “Chut” in Hebrew, is a String, a Strand, a Rope. * “Shani”, in Hebrew, is the color Scarlet. Preceding the conquest of Jericho, two powerful historical acts of symbolism were enacted, and one soon afterwards, by the people of Israel in following Joshua’s orders from God. A. The erection of “Galed,” the Mound of Witness, in Gilgal (Joshua 4). Twelve men, one from each of the twelve tribes carried a stone from the Jordan River crossing, in solemn procession ahead of the Ark of the Covenant, marching into Canaan, the Land of Promise. At day’s end they piled the stones into a single mound as an everlasting remembrance for the people of Israel of the miraculous crossing, as the waters of Jordan were invisibly rolled back for them to cross over into their God-given inheritance. B. The mass circumcision at Gilgal (Joshua 5). If A. symbolized coming into the Promised Land, B. formed an extraordinary re-dedication. Circumcision in Hebrew is “Brit” - Covenant, so named for the act which sealed God’s covenant with Abraham. The entrance into the land was accompanied by a national renewal of the Covenant. C. The crime of Achan. The extreme public enforcement of adherence to God’s guidance. (Joshua 7) Mighty acts as all of the above three were, none of them reached the magic aura carried through the ages of the three words said by two boys in grace and truth of life promise to a woman and her family in Jericho, a city destined for total and complete destruction. In numerous ways, the fulfillment of the Zionist dream of the 19th-20th centuries during the passionate rise in the return to Zion, is as miraculous as the original series of events when Israel first marched into its appointed land under the leadership of Joshua, and into the ceaseless wars that were inevitably to follow. Arguably Jericho’s three reverberating words should have been Israel’s motto if not its very insignia. What powerful three words of hope they have become for us, a verbal banner-like emblem expressing an inherent attitude of symbolisms, a “Shofar”- horn blowing, a reunification yearning for our people on our land. Three words for which, (as with the well known “Next Year In Jerusalem,”) throughout the past two millennia were uttered as a prayer of the highest of all wishes to come true . . .which it surely did. |
INHERENT STAND FOR THE WHOLESOME |
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