Yet there is a unlikely tribe whose very name, we are taught, extols his role as representative of the greatness of Torah.

נפתלי, Naftali, is a contraction of two words נֹפֶת לִי, meaning: sweetness is to me.

This ‘sweetness’ refers to the Torah, that King David attests ‘is sweeter than honey and נפת צופים, drippings from the combs.  (תהלים יט יא)

The word, לי, comprised of a ל and a י, which correspond respectively to the numbers 30 and 10, giving us a total of 40, represents the forty days Moshe ascended Mount Sinai to receive the Torah.

The tribe of Naftali personified this ‘sweetness’.

The Midrash, pointing to a verse in Chronicles that makes reference to a ‘thousand captains’ from the tribe of Naftali in contrast to merely ‘two hundred chiefs’ amongst the tribe of Yissachar, explains that this discrepancy is due to Naftali’s greater devotion to Torah even during times of hardship and while traveling from place to place. The captains and chiefs here refer to their levels of Torah stature, with the larger number of scholars developing within this tribe of Naftali and surpassing by five-fold the notable tribe of Torah scholars, Yissachar.

(שהש"ר ח יב)

Aside from this cryptic allusion in their name to their devotion to Torah study, in the blessing he received from his father there seems to be no evidence of this connection.

נפתלי אילה שלוחה הנתן אמרי שפר -בראשית מט כא , Naftali is a hind let loose who delivers beautiful sayings.

Naftali’s implied swiftness in fulfilling his duties and his ability to utter appropriate and sweet praise seem unrelated to this attainment of Torah scholarship.

There is however another fascinating Midrash that extracts from this last quality mentioned in the verse, a connection to the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai.

The word ֹשֶפֶר, which implies beauty is also the same letters as the word שֹפָר, the horn that blasted its message at Sinai. The Midrash goes on to interpret the words: הנתן אמרי ֹשֶפֶר (/ֹשֹפָר); these are the words of Torah that were given after forty days through the shofar as it says, ‘The entire people saw the thunder and the flames; the sound of the shofar and the smoking mountain’. (צרור המור בשם המדרש)

We pray every day for the ingathering of the exiles. We beseech, תקע בשופר גדול, sound the great shofar for our freedom.

Is this merely a sound and a call to notify the masses to return? Or might there be a deeper summoning within the voice of this shofar?

The shofar is not simply an instrument used to alert and awaken, but it is rather a calling, a charge. It echoes and conveys the message we heard at the revelation at Sinai when we received the Torah. The shofar beckons us to hear its beautiful notes throughout every moment and encounter in life, inspiring us with its message and to the awareness that G-d speaks to us constantly and directly, we just need to be willing to hear it.

The verse states that it was a קול גדול ולא יסף (דברים ה יט), A great voice that would never cease.(תרגום אונקלוס). It is ever-present suspended in eternity for each of us to access every single moment of our lives.

It has been noted that the appeal to G-d, תקע, to sound, is numerically equivalent to the name נפתלי, 570.

This tribe’s ability to commit themselves to the study of Torah through difficulty and while being unsettled, is not as much a testimony to their devotion in the face of hardship as it is to the ‘sound of the shofar’ that resonates deeply within their souls that inspires a joy and close connection to G-d that refuses to be quelled even in the face of obstacles.

Perhaps Naftali’s diligence and alacrity is the natural byproduct of a soul that stirs with the sweetness of G-d’s message; the Torah that was given after forty days that still excites and animates our every breath as it did on the day it was first received.

The choice of the very words הנותן אמרי שפר, literally: who ‘gives forth’ words of beauty, rather than the more typical formulation of ‘expressing words of beauty’, connotes a transmission of one’s very essence, not simply the delivering of words in a message.

The greatness of this tribe lay in their skill to תקע, ‘sound’, the call of the shofar, instilling an contagious excitement that not only fuels their enthused devotion but can inspire their environment to join in this effort as well.

The illustrious descendant of this tribe, Devorah the Prophetess, faced an arduous enemy, Sisera.

Although it would seem that the nation cowered before his physical might, our Sages teach us otherwise.

The Prophet reports how Sisra לחץ את בני ישראל בחזקה עשרים שנה (שופטים ד ג), mightily oppressed the children of Israel for twenty years.

The Midrash defines the nature of this ‘mighty oppression’ as גידופין, verbal abuse. (תנחומא צו ב)

Can a nation be defeated by verbal abuse alone? What powerful invective could have Sisera have possibly implemented that would drain their strength so?

Rebbi Tanchuma directs us to the words of the prophecy at the end of the book of Malachi. There too it speaks of ‘mighty’ words. A dialogue is portrayed between G-d and his people that will take place at the end of time before Eliyahu will herald the final redemption.

חזקו עלי דבריכם אמר ה',Your words have been all too mighty against Me, said G-d

ואמרתם מה נדברנו עליך, Yet you say: 'Wherein have we spoken against You?’

אמרתם שוא עבד אלקים, You have said: ‘It is futile to serve God;

ומה בצע כי שמרנו משמרתו, and what profit is it that we have kept His charge,

וכי הלכנו קדורנית מפני ה' צבאו-ת, and for going about in anxious worry because of the G-d of hosts?

ועתה אנחנו מאשרים זדים, And now we praise the bold transgressors;

גם נבנו עושי רשעה, yes, they that work wickedness are built up;

גם בחנו אלקים וימלטו, yes, they try God, and are delivered.’ (מלאכי ג יג-טו) 

The Alter of Slaboka questions the audacity of the people who respond so incredulously to G-d’s accusing them of having expressed the worthlessness of serving G-d, by outrightly repudiating they ever spoke at all. Could it be that they were so impudent to make such a preposterous denial?

He explains that certainly they could not be so boldfaced as to lie to G-d’s face. G-d wasn’t incriminating them about any actual words they had uttered but was rather addressing their apathy and lack of enthusiasm that was evident in their lackadaisical attitude towards serving Him. Their lack of joy and interest spoke volumes of their sense of purposelessness in following the ways of Torah that was prodded by their observing the successes of the wicked who seem to prosper without any consequence.

They therefore correctly denied having spoken any ill towards G-d, but came to realize how empty their spiritual lives truly were.

Sisera’s ‘mighty’ rhetoric over a twenty year period wore away at the core of their souls, leaving them despondent and defeated.

Until Devorah came along.

She is referred to as אשת לפידות, the wife of Lapidot. This word, לפידות, which means torches alludes to her fashioning thick wicks for the Menorah, the symbol of Torah, which ‘illuminated’ the Tabernacle that stood in Shiloh. She involved her husband, Barak, who was an unlearned man, to bring these wicks to the Temple so that he too may become inspired by the proximity to holiness. She succeeds not only in awakening greatness within her husband but goes on to inspire and revive the entire nation.

The great disciple of the Ramchal, Rabbi Moshe Dovid Valle, adds that the ‘torch’ here refers not only to the thick wicks she fashioned, but more so to the personal flame that burned brightly within her. The joy and enthusiasm she brought to her serving G-d is what created a contagious enthusiasm that not only inspired her husband but moved an entire generation.

Perhaps the power of Naftali, ‘sweetness is to me’, which represents the joy and enthusiasm of those who truly hear the ‘sound’ of the shofar’, that inspires every endeavor that  ‘gives’ and transmits the ‘beauty’ of its message, is something we each inherently possess.

The prophet Malachi goes on to describe how the people finally ‘got it’, putting themselves back on track towards the destination of eternity; the redemption.

Then the God-fearing men spoke to one another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it. And a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who feared the Lord and for those who valued His name highly.

We must each ask ourselves whether the manner we live our lives communicates a message of ‘it is futile to serve G-d’, or does it reflect one of ‘those who value His name highly.

We are approaching the end of days, let us get on the bandwagon of enthusiasm, inspiring our families and communities to return to our Father in Heaven.

באהבה,

צבי טייכמאן