נס ציונה | Nes tsiyona | The Flag of Zion (1912)
Artist: Abraham Zvi Idelsohn (1882-1938)
Lyrics: N. Rosenblum
Tune: Ben-Yehuda
This song was written in 1898, after the first Zionist Congress, by Noah Rosenblum – and not by N. Rosenfeld, as Idelsohn incorrectly indicated in Sefer Ha-shirim. During the Congress, six hundred and fifty Zionist societies gathered to form a united Zionist organization to promote the idea of the creation of a Jewish state in Zion. The lyrics, as in many early Zionist songs, refer to biblical themes: Jeremiah 4:6, Psalms 130, Psalms 126 and the Jewish liturgical piyyut "az yeranenu" [then they shall sing].
“Nes tsiyona” declares the Zionist ideology to bring the Jewish people from the diaspora back to their historic homeland and build a new Jewish society there. The first verse runs: "let us go together to our homeland, with the flag of "mahane Yehuda” (the camp of Yehuda). The second verse runs: "come out "mima'amakim" [out of the depths] (Psalm 130) to the land of shokhen 'aravot [living in the willows], a term that refers to God. The song continues: "together we will become once again a unified nation and our mouth will be full of joy and singing" (Psalms 126:2).
Idelsohn (Ben -Yehuda) composed a melody to this popular Zionist text. In 1907, he published the melody, arranged for four voices, in his book Shirey Zion [Songs of Zion] (Jerusalem, 1908: p. 3). Here, the melody, arranged for two voices, is in a major key and a walking tempo.
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