Hatikvah
The song tells about the Jews' two-thousand-year-old hope of returning to their homeland of Israel. The words of the song are based on a nine-stanza poem called "Tikvatenu" (,  , meaning "Our Hope"), which was written by Imber himself. "Hatikvah" uses only the first stanza and the refrain of Imber's poem. The last line of the refrain was changed, and the words were put to music. The music is from a very old and popular folk song that Samuel Cohen, a Jew born in Spain, found himself humming one day. It is played in a minor key. The words to the song are about the Jews' hope that one day their sadness will be turned into joy.