Learn the Israeli National anthem

While in Israel we will be singing on the bus as well as on the boat on the Sea of Galilee, one song specifically is Hatikvah, the National anthem of Israel. Hatikvah means "The Hope." Taken from an 18th century poem it expresses the deep desire of Jews still in the diaspora (the dispersion) to be back in the land of their Fathers, the land given to them by the promise of God to Abraham:
Gen 15:18-21 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi[a] of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.” 

These are the words of "The Hope" in English:
As long as Jewish spirit
Yearns deep in the heart,
With eyes turned East,
Looking towards Zion.

Our hope is not yet lost,
The hope of two millennia,
To be a free people in our land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.

We will be singing it in Hebrew the transliteration of which follows:

Kol ‘od balleivav penimah
Nefesh yehudi homiyah,
Ul(e)fa’atei mizrach kadimah,
‘Ayin letziyon tzofiyah;

‘Od lo avdah tikvateinu,
Hatikvah bat shnot alpayim,
Lihyot ‘am chofshi be’artzeinu,
Eretz-tziyon (v)'Y(e)rushalayim.

I'm including a link to a video of the song with the lyrics:

Enjoy, Looking forward just 10 more days!

Are you ready?

Can you believe that there is only 2 weeks until we leave for Israel?

Char sent me a link to a beautiful video on Israel.  Many sites are familiar to me from the last time we were there.  If you have never been, you will be amazed at the beauty of the land - God calls it a land flowing with milk and honey.