“Abraham was my father. I was his son and his only heir. I was the one who could continue his line and perpetuate his name. Without me, where would he be? Where would those promises be that he said he had gotten from his god? Then Isaac came.”

—Joseph Heller, from “Hagar & Ishmael”

עוֹד לֹא אָבְדָה תִּקְוָתֵנוּ

הַתִּקְוָה בַּת שְׁנוֹת אַלְפַּיִם

לִהְיוֹת עַם חָפְשִׁי בְּאַרְצֵנוּ

אֶרֶץ צִיּוֹן וִירוּשָׁלַיִם

Our hope is not yet lost,

The hope that is two-thousand years old,

To be a free nation in our land,

The Land of Zion and Jerusalem.

—“Hatikvah,” Israeli National Anthem