(JNi.media) The Bank of Israel on Thursday introduced a new 200 shekel bill, the second out of four in a new series of banknotes, which will replace the current series that has been in circulation since 1999. The first banknote in the new series, valued at 50 shekels, in green, carries a horizontal portrait of poet Shaul Tchernichovsky (1875-1943), was put into circulation just over a year ago.
The new 200 shekel bill is blue and bears the horizontal portrait of poet Nathan Alterman (1910-1970). It is the same width as the new Tchernichovsky, but comes in a different length, to help the visually impaired. The two new bills should be useful to early rising Talmudists, since the sages define the earliest time of dawn as when one can distinguish between green and blue—or, in its modern version, between a Tchernichovsky and an Altherman.
Like the first note in the new series, the 200 shekels also bears many more advanced security and anti-counterfeiting marks than the existing series of notes. According to the Bank of Israel, the entire new series of bills was designed to cope with the relentless rise in the quality of counterfeits in the world and with the technological means currently available to counterfeiters, introducing state-of-the-art standards of safety and innovation. As part of the preparations for the new banknote issuing, the Bank of Israel instructed operators of vending machines on calibrating their equipment and upgrading their software to recognize the new bill.
Finally, here is a Tchernichovsky:
Creed / Shaul Tchernichovsky
Laugh, laugh at all my dreams! What I dream shall yet come true! Laugh at my belief in man, At my belief in you.
Freedom still my soul demands, Unbartered for a calf of gold. For still I do believe in man, And in his spirit, strong and bold.
And in the future I still believe Though it be distant, come it will When nations shall each other bless, And peace at last the earth shall fill. And, for contrast, here is an Alterman:
The Silver Platter / Nathan Alterman
And the land grows still, the red eye of the sky slowly dimming over smoking frontiers As the nation arises, Torn at heart but breathing, To receive its miracle, the only miracle As the ceremony draws near, it will rise, standing erect in the moonlight in terror and joy When across from it will step out a youth and a lass and slowly march toward the nation Dressed in battle gear, dirty, Shoes heavy with grime, they ascend the path quietly To change garb, to wipe their brow They have not yet found time. Still bone weary from days and from nights in the field Full of endless fatigue and unrested, Yet the dew of their youth. Is still seen on their head Thus they stand at attention, giving no sign of life or death Then a nation in tears and amazement will ask: “Who are you?” And they will answer quietly, “We Are the silver platter on which the Jewish state was given.” Thus they will say and fall back in shadows And the rest will be told In the chronicles of Israel.