The word Tikva means hope. How is this type of hope needed to activate Mashiach described in the Torah? How can we use when davening for Mashiach and we say; לִישׁוּעָתְךָ קִוִּינוּ כָּל הַיּוֹם?
Rabbeinu Bachya teaches that Hashem chose a tree to be the site at which He manifested Himself to Avraham. It was because the angel was directed to tell him the news that Avraham and Sara would have a son, even though they were quite old to have children according to nature. This belief, or hope in such a possibility is called Tikvah.
The word Tikva is found associated to a tree and waters in the following verses:
כִּי יֵשׁ לָעֵץ תִּקְוָה אִם־יִכָּרֵת וְעוֹד יַחֲלִיף וְיֹנַקְתּוֹ לֹא תֶחְדָּל
“There is hope for a tree; if it is cut down it will renew itself; its shoots will not cease. If its shoots are old in the earth, and its stump dies in the ground, at the scent of water it will bud and produce branches like a sapling.”[1]
In the first chapter of Tehillim Dovid Hamelech compares the Tzadik to trees “He (the tzadik) is like a tree planted beside streams of water which yields its fruit in season.”[2][3]
The first time the word יִקָּווּ הַמַּיִם related to Tikvah appears in the Torah, it is a description of waters being gathered into a Mikvah, מִקְוֵה הַמַּיִם. The process of gathering the waters and the separations of the waters went contrary to the natural inclination.[4]
Interestingly the first time the actual word of Tikvah is brought in Torah is in Yehoshua when he sent the spies to Yericho. The Tikvah is depicted as the Chut Hashani, the crimson rope, that was a depiction of Hashem’s Miracle of transformation into white, and purity; Yom Kippur.[5]
When Shlomo Hamelech is constructing the Beis Hamikdash the word וקוה, Vikav, appears and is defined as a measuring line, measured from within[6]. It is also related to water that was used as a Mikveh for the Kohamim to wash away any impurities.[7]
Tikvah therefore is a world that allows for complete transformation within (rooted and focused), and the ability to connect to Hashem as One, and to each other like strings connecting one to another and above to Hashem. Tikvah is the ability for us to have a Yom Kippur even after the sin of an Egel. It is a world of Kalev ben Yefuneh who tried connecting Klal Yisrael to Tikvah after the spies denied the ability of the people to master themselves in Eretz Yisrael. The Shelah Hakadosh teaches how Yehusha fixed the sin of the spies when he sent the spies to Yericho and they restored the Tikvah.
“The spies reversed the true state of affairs by reporting that the inhabitants of Eretz Yisrael had merits, implying Israel did not have sufficient merits. They committed one sin after another, until in the end they denied the virtues of Hashem by implying that these inhabitants were mightier than Hashem Himself, when they said in 13,31: “for it is stronger than He,” (referring to Hashem when they said ממנו.) When Yehoshua sent out his spies, they repaired the damage done by the ten spies in our story. That is the deeper significance of the red line that they demanded that Rachav should suspend the rope outside her window. [8]
I believe the idea of Tikvah is to live with a certain type of hope as a reality that can connect to all. It is the ability to have a constant vision of an unlimited existence as real. The vision of a world of Mashiach as being real.
It is to see the world of a Tzadik as real. To aspire to be a person and see others to be a person that can be compared to a “tree planted by streams of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season; its leaf also shall not wither; and in whatever he does he shall prosper.”
A world of life and anti death
A world so secure no matter what, he can be planted and replanted and will still thrive.
A world of a tzadik being what is real and true.
A world of purification, of renewal, as in a Mikveh
Tikvah in the Wondrous Yeshua of Hashem just as He granted Avraham and Sara a child beyond the natural laws of existence.
This type of person is to me a description of a person who lives with the reality of: לִישׁוּעָתְךָ קִוִּינוּ כָּל הַיּוֹם; the flourishing of Mashiach Ben Dovid.
May we attach to the Kav of David Hamelech, Adoneinu Virabeinu, in his words, to gather us all together in Yerushalayim and see Mashiach and the revelation of Hashem and His Kavod as Echad without delay please, Hashem.
[1] Iyov 14, 7-9
[2] Tehillim, 1:3
[3] Rabbeinu Bachya, Beraishis, 18:1
[4] Ramban, Beraishi, 1:9
[5] Yehoshua, 2:18
[6] וּמִתּוֹכוֹ הוּא מוֹדֵד, Rashi, on Melachim, 7:24
[7] וַיַּעַשׂ אֶת־הַיָּם מוּצָק עֶשֶׂר בָּאַמָּה מִשְּׂפָתוֹ עַד־שְׂפָתוֹ עָגֹל סָבִיב וְחָמֵשׁ בָּאַמָּה קוֹמָתוֹ וקוה [וְקָו] שְׁלֹשִׁים בָּאַמָּה יָסֹב אֹתוֹ סָבִיב׃
And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from one brim to the other: it was round all about, and its height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did circle it round about. (Melachim 7:23)
[8] Shnei Luchos Habris, Yehoshua, 2:18
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