Hineinu (Tikva's Song)

words and lyrics by Cantor Jonathan Comisar

I have been meaning to share this for a few weeks now. Our dear friend Tracy commissioned Jonathan to write this song. To learn Tikva's story, he read our blogs and watched the videos Dave made. Tracy sang this song at the Night of Hope and Learning in honor of Tikva, which took place at the HUC campuses in New York, Cincinnati and Los Angeles on February 9th. Dave got to share the evening with his friends in Los Angeles. Thank you Jonathan and friends from the Hebrew Union College. Here are the lyrics...

Where are the words?
What does one say?
When this was not supposed to happen in this way
A child is born, she meets the day
How do you say goodbye before she learns to play?

Should we be smart?
Should we be grand?
And call upon some wisdom that will help us understand
Perhaps a sage, or distant lands?
No matter where we search, we're left with empty hands

No, the best we can do is stare back at what is true
And say we are here--Hineinu--we are here.

A mother's love
A father's cries
How do they face the morning sunlight when they rise?
Somehow they pray between their sighs
And you can see the courage in their eyes

And they called their daughter Tikva
And Hope would be her name
And the Love that Tikva taught them
Gave them back a life they could reclaim

They did the best that they could do
As they learned and loved and grew
Yes, she was here--Hinenah--she IS here
And we are here--Hineinu--we are here