Barkai HaShlishi, or The Blood Avenger, including poems on Israel and its hope, composed by the poet renowned throughout the world, Naftali Herz Imber, author of the poems "HaTikvah" and "Mishmar HaYarden". New York: A.H. Rosenberg, 1904.

Naftali Herz Imber’s (1856-1909) final poetry collection, inscribed and signed on the portrait leaf:
"To my dear protector and benefactor, Hon. Judge Majer Sulzberger – in eternal memory of hidden love – Naftali Herz Imber" (the inscription begins in English, the remainder is in Hebrew).

Barkai HaShlishi was printed during the final years of Imber’s life, when he was leading a wandering and impoverished existence in the United States, subsisting through the support of Judge Mayer Sulzberger (1843-1923), the recipient of the present copy. In his efforts to assist the poet – by then renowned as the author of the Zionist anthem – Sulzberger granted Imber a monthly stipend, covered his medical expenses, and even personally financed the printing of the present book. When asked why he assisted the troubled poet, Sulzberger remarked that Imber possessed a rare and sensitive soul – yearning, restless, yet shattered and broken – utterly ruined by alcohol; he lamented that there was no longer any hope for the author of HaTikvah.

As a gesture of gratitude, Imber asked Sulzberger for biographical details for a printed dedication; when Sulzberger declined, Imber presented him instead with this inscribed copy.

The present book includes a revised version of HaTikvah, originally published under the title Tikvateinu in Imber’s first book. By this time, the poem had gained widespread recognition as the anthem of the Zionist movement; it was sung at the close of every Zionist Congress, translated into English, and had achieved unprecedented prominence in the circles of modern Hebrew poetry.

This edition – the last of Imber’s three principal publications – presents the poem as the national anthem, now under the name HaTikvah, alongside an English translation. This printed version is notably close to the modern Israeli national anthem, beginning with the two stanzas later adopted (with only three lines differing from the current text).

For references, see Hebrew description.

[80] pages + [1] plate (portrait, signed). 21.5 cm. Good condition. Trimmed margins (first line of inscription partly missing). Minor stains and blemishes. Tear to one leaf margin. New endpapers and binding, retaining the original wrappers. Several library markings (bookplate, stickers, stamps, etc.), including stamps and pencil inscriptions.

The Composition of HaTikvah – Israel’s National Anthem

According to his own account, Imber composed the first version of Tikvateinu in 1877/1878 while in Iași, Romania. Another version, cited in the Encyclopedia of the Founders and Builders of Israel (p. 1586; Hebrew), claims he wrote it in 1886, after drinking heavily at a Purim celebration in Gadera, whereupon he rose from his stupor and declared, "I have just now composed the first two verses to our national song, which shall give expression to our

During his travels in the early Zionist colonies in Palestine, Imber revised and expanded the poem, ultimately publishing it in its final form in Barkai. About a year later, it was set to music by Shmuel Cohen (1870-1940), an early settler of Rishon LeZion. Cohen’s melody was based on a Romanian wagoners’ song of Slavic origin (similar to the tune used by Czech composer Bedřich Smetana in his symphonic poem "Vltava", also known as "The Moldau").

The song was quickly adopted by the early settlers and spread to Europe, where it became the unofficial anthem of Zionism, sung at every Zionist congress. Over the years, some changes to wording were made, including the renaming of the poem to HaTikvah ("the Hope"). Without any formal declaration, the first two stanzas of the song became the de facto anthem of the Jewish people. In 1933 it was officially recognized as the Zionist movement’s anthem, and following the establishment of the State of Israel, it served unofficially as the national anthem until 2004, when it was formally legislated as such (see: Eliyahu HaCohen, "Od Lo Avda Tikvateinu", in Ariel, no. 186, January 2009, pp. 101-104 [Hebrew]).