Be fierce as a leopard, light as an eagle, swift as a deer, and strong as a lion to do the will of your Father in heaven.
Avot 5:23
Whenever I pull Rabbi Moses Ĥayim Luzzato’s Mesilat Yesharim off the shelf, I fully expect a bawling out. Indeed, we need the Ramĥal1An acronym for Rabbi Moshe Ĥayim Luzzato. to stir us out of the ennui that threatens purpose and devotion to our life’s work, so those of us with overactive superegos never let this famous work gather too much dust. The treatise is, after all, devoted to practical ways to perfect one’s character, and I know to anticipate a reprimand in his gentle words.
Examining the character of Naphtali was like spending time with Mesilat Yesharim: at once, exhausting and exhilarating; humbling…and positively energizing. Naphtali is a delight, perfectly capturing the midah of zerizut, or enthusiasm. He had a lightness and swiftness that refreshes after a meditation on his older brother Dan.2See chapter 8 on Dan. We will leave Naphtali with a panging for his zerizut, and a lighter spring in our step.
This second son of Bilhah was a relief for Rachel, who could savor this child without the heavy expectations she suffered upon Dan. Perhaps after the pain of the exchange with Jacob that led to Dan’s birth, this next child proved to lighten her burden significantly, as she came more fully into her role in the family. It was Rachel’s emergent understanding that she was to be the catalyst for family growth – to be the binder of people, without necessarily needing to provide the children from her own body – that inspired Naphtali’s name:
Bilhah, Rachel’s maidservant, conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. Said Rachel: I was persistent with God [naftuli Elokim], and I prevailed to be like my sister; I too am able [naftalti im aĥoti, gam yakholti]! She therefore called his name “Naphtali.”
Genesis 30:7–8
Every exegetical attempt to expound this last verse suffers from the strangeness of Rachel’s language here. What exactly did she intend for her second surrogate son?
In the plainest sense, as I’ve chosen to translate above, Rachel celebrated her perseverance in the face of crippling infertility. Naftal is rooted in patal, which means twisting, or, by extension, wresting/expending effort. Rachel demonstrated her flexibility and willingness to find a roundabout way to defeat destiny, and that was what was celebrated in Naphtali’s name. A closely related reading: “Elokim” indicates something mighty, weighty; Rachel gloried in the “mighty wrestlings that I have wrestled, the efforts I have expended to be like my sister – to be a mother! Look at me now.”3Radak, ad loc.
Another take on the “twisted” connotation of patal, this one suggested by the midrash,4Lekaĥ, Genesis 30:9, probably based on Deuteronomy 32:5 where p-t-l clearly means subversive (“dor ikesh u-fetaltol” – an obstinate and twisted generation). Note that Rashi also referred to this verse to argue that Rachel named Naphtali for her obstinacy and perseverance in pursuing her goal of motherhood. has the word meaning “subverting” or “tricking.” With her proclamation, Rachel was stating: “I was able to gracefully bear subversive matters and divine secrets between my sister and me (for this I merited another son!).”
This interpretation is supported by the midrashic story that Rachel, in a supreme act of self-sacrifice, handed over to Leah the special simanim (passwords) that she and Jacob had arranged before their nuptials so that she might prove herself to be Rachel, and avoid this very situation.5Megillah 13b; Bava Batra 123a. This interpretation is further supported by another midrashic contention that “n-f-t-l” is an acronym of “nafot,” “patoh,” “taloh.” Said Rachel: I perfumed my couch (I was set to marry Jacob), I was persuaded (to have Leah marry him first), I exalted, raised up (my sister, so therefore I too merited children).
Others explain “patal” to suggest attachment and bonding (much as a petil, a thick thread or wick, is woven and twisted together). In this sense, the proclamation might mean: Mine is the bond that binds Jacob to this place, for it was for my sake that he came to Laban, implying that Rachel was reasserting her familial role. She defined herself as the source of Jacob’s relationships: if not for her, Jacob would not have had children with Leah. Or, alternatively: I have bound myself to the Lord in prayer, I have contorted myself in supplication to Him, and my prayers were accepted like those of my sister.6Rashi, quoting Onkelos. Also Lekaĥ, ad loc. Genesis 30:7–8.
All of these attempted interpretations agree that this mysterious proclamation reflected a confidence that was new to Rachel. I deserved this child, she asserted. My perseverance – Naphtali – built me a family of my own. More subtly, but equally compelling, was the sense that Naphtali freed Rachel to newly experience a simpler joy, unburdened by the anxiety of becoming a mother for the first time. Both her confidence and her lightheartedness were embedded in the expansive character of Naphtali.
Perhaps we’d best revisit the root of Naphtali’s name, p-t-l,” to provide the most suitable description of this tribe’s character. The commentator Abarbanel astutely draws upon the tribal name in explaining the bountiful blessing bestowed by Moses on Naphtali:
And of Naphtali he said,
Naphtali, whose will is content,
And who is filled with the blessing of God,
Inherits the sea and the south.
Deuteronomy 33:23
Naphtali was praised by Moses for his naturally agreeable and content character – he was the quintessential seva ratzon, happy with his lot. The intertwined threads of the petil wick symbolized hibur, or the qualities of social connection and agreeability. Naphtali counterbalanced the isolation and coldness of his older brother Dan. The imagery employed by Jacob to describe Naphtali – a hind – was symbolic of connections made: the swift messages and imrei shefer (sweet words) that bind a society together. He served the family faithfully and enthusiastically, desiring only to provide for their happiness.7Abarbanel, Deuteronomy 33:23.
The Swift Shevet
Naphtali is a hind sent forth,
Delivering sweet words.
Genesis 49:21
Throughout rabbinic literature, Naphtali is best known for his startling swiftness. It was Naphtali whom Jacob dispatched to summon both Rachel and Leah for a consultation about leaving their father’s home and setting out for Canaan.8Targum Yerushalmi, Genesis 31:4. Naphtali delivered Joseph’s coat to Jacob after the brothers dyed it in blood,9Sefer Ha-Yashar, VaYeshev 70a. and he inverted this action years later, by delivering the news to Jacob that Joseph was alive.10Targum Yerushalmi, Genesis 49:21. At the moment of Jacob’s burial, Naphtali hightailed it back to Egypt to retrieve the deed securing right to burial in Me’arat Ha-Makhpelah.11Sotah 13a; PRE 38.
The tribal symbols all marked this swiftness that so characterized Naphtali. The tribe’s breastplate stone was shevo (turquoise), which had the power of giving a rider speed.12Rabbenu Baĥya, Exodus 28:17. Their flag was emblazoned with the image of a bounding deer.13BaR 2:7.
The swiftness characterizing the tribe is evoked again and again by the midrash and commentaries as a metaphor for the abundant blessing bestowed on Naphtali by both Jacob and Moses. Their naĥalah was to be wide and expansive, as a deer bounds around the field. Their fruits and produce were to ripen quickly and be fit for a king’s table.14This blessing was realized in the lush Gennesaret Valley (BR 99:12 and 98:17; Tan. VeYeĥi 13; Sifrei, Deuteronomy 355; Midrash Tannaim 33:23). Voluminous minds were to meet in their territory, men of wisdom far-reaching enough to adjudicate for the entire nation.15The allusion is to the Sanhedrin that convened in Tiberias. Tan. B. VaYetzei 19; BR 71:8; Megillah 6a. See also Sifrei, Deuteronomy 355; Midrash Tannaim 33:23.
Jacob’s characterization of Naphtali as fleet-footed had profound implications. The general attribute reflected a deeper existential character trait.16The Sages considered any external attribute of a biblical figure as reflecting a deeper character trait. Esau’s ruddiness, Leah’s weak eyes, Joseph’s good looks – all indicated something much more profound to the commentator’s mind than mere superficial narration. The Psalmist equated swiftness with a haste to fulfill the commandments: “I was quick; I did not delay in keeping your mitzvot” (Psalms 119:60).
The exemplary dispatch of Naphtali demonstrated, according to midrashic readings, not an unusual athletic prowess, but an eagerness to act and fulfill the divine will.17MHG Genesis 49:21. The hind of Naphtali bounded along with the other fleet animals in the famous dictum of the Sages: “Be fierce as a leopard, light as an eagle, swift as a deer, and strong as a lion to do the will of your Father in heaven” (Avot 5:23).
If we carefully examine the cases above that exemplify Naphtali’s swiftness, they all point to Naphtali’s role as messenger. In none of the situations did he strike out on his own initiative; in all of them, he was faithfully serving the greater cause.
Consider one of Naphtali’s noted descendants, Barak son of Abinoam. Barak was Deborah’s partner, and played a strictly secondary position within their dual leadership. He certainly exemplified the swiftness of his tribe, chasing relentlessly after the Canaanite enemy. What was most notable about Barak was his choice to play a supporting role, facilitating Deborah’s glory and eschewing the limelight. Barak was the quintessential ben Naphtali, joining together the northern tribes in service of the nation, but absolutely refusing to go it alone: “Barak said to [Deborah]: If you will go with me, I will go; if not, I will not go” (Judges 4:8).
The messenger was the binder and the enabler. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, in his commentary on Jacob’s blessing to Naphtali, noted that while the creativity and originality came from elsewhere, the messenger served to actualize the idea and make it real.18This truth was stirringly expressed by bereaved mother Miriam Peretz, upon receiving the news that her second son had been killed in action:
As if she could lock out death, Miriam Peretz shut the door in the faces of the military officers who came to notify her that her son, Eliraz, 32, had been killed in Gaza.
“I didn’t want them to say anything. I just wanted a few more minutes with Eliraz. I felt he was still alive, and once they notified me of his demise that would be it. Those words would stop his life. I didn’t want them to come into the house. I locked the doors and the windows and closed the shutters,” says Miriam.
As she stood there, someone opened the door for the officers. When she saw them, she ordered them not to speak. “I will tell you when. Just give me another moment. My son is wounded. Do not tell me anything else. [An officer] kept trying to talk. I kept saying, ‘No.’ He said, ‘I have to talk,’ and I already knew what he would say.” Tovah Lazaroff, “God, I Have Paid My Share,” Jerusalem Post, April 16, 2010.
The zariz is not a philosopher or the charismatic leader of a group. The zariz is a facilitator, eager to serve, and his constant activity on behalf of others brings him blessing.19Hirsch, Genesis 49:12.
The Ramĥal outlines the rarity and uniqueness of this trait of zerizut – and its essential importance to Israel:
A person’s nature exercises a strong downward pull upon him.…Neglect [of his responsibilities] is due not to an inadequate recognition of his duty nor to any other cause but the increasing weight of his laziness upon him. He says, “I will eat a little,” or “I will sleep a little,” or “It is hard for me to leave the house,” or “I have taken off my shirt; how can I put it on again?” or “It is very hot outside,” or “It is very cold,” or “It is raining too hard,” and all the other excuses and pretenses that fill the mouths of fools. Whatever the excuse, the Torah is neglected, Divine service dispensed with, and the Creator abandoned.
“The Trait of Zeal,” Mesilat Yesharim
This rebuke resonates with many of us, especially in this period of enticing new technologies that may divert our drive. We have more silly excuses than ever before to push off purposeful activity and succumb to the myriad ways of being unproductive. Naphtali’s bounding enthusiasm, the zerizut neither easily attained nor maintained, serves as a particularly relevant wake-up call for the Internet generation.
Naphtali and Dan
Throughout the various biblical lists of tribes and censuses, Naphtali is almost always counted last. The tribe served as the connector, and its position as the last to be counted brought the family full circle. The unifying shevet, who served at the pleasure of the nation, brought up the rear, calming the divisive influences among their brethren by entwining them all together in a single vision.
In this respect, Naphtali was the mirror image of Dan. Dan too was the me’asef, whose task it was to gather the lost and disenfranchised. Both were surrogate children, “in-betweeners,” who have two mothers. In contrast to Dan, though, Naphtali experienced this as a strength, rather than as a weakness. His flexibility as a go-between allowed him to attach the disparate elements within the nation, promoting goodwill and harmony. Perhaps this was due to the shift in Rachel’s perception on her role in the family. Whereas with Dan, Rachel was in a dispossessed, fraught state, at the time of Naphtali’s birth, she accepted her family role as the facilitator of relationships.
The Month of Naphtali
The Arizal assigned each of the twelve months to a different tribe, exploring the commonalities of individual tribal character with specific qualities unique to each month. In accord with the established pattern of Naphtali being listed last throughout the Bible, the Arizal assigned the final month, Adar, to that tribe.
The links between Naphtali and Adar are numerous. Adar’s central holiday is Purim, which is anchored by the personality of Esther. She was described by the Sages as “ayelet ha-shaĥar” (the doe of the dawn) – an echo of Naphtali’s ayalah. Esther was the unifying force that galvanized a fractured nation, described at that time as “scattered and dispersed among the other peoples.” “Go and gather all of the Jews together,” she commanded, calling the people to unity.
Although from a different child of Rachel, Esther shared Naphtali’s symbol, and with that, his ability to reenergize the nation. She, too, was among the me’asfim, the binders, among Rachel’s descendants who personified the facilitating nature of their matriarch. Esther, whose beauty was compared to the moon, shared the quality of regular renewal and reinvigoration, the same zerizut that so characterized Naphtali. Adar, the month of Purim, is, indeed, the perfect complement to Naphtali.
Naĥalat Naphtali
The naĥalah of Naphtali soared over a vast terrain, broad and expansive. It covered a good bulk of the north, stretching west from the southern tip of the Sea of Chinnereth over to its meeting point with Zebulun and Issachar at Mount Tabor, and then north to encompass the entire central and eastern Galilee, including the Hula Valley and the rivers that feed the Jordan. Naphtali shared a western border with both Zebulun and Asher. Theirs was the largest northern naĥalah. The emblem of the northern command of the Israel Defense Forces is, naturally, a deer, since most of contemporary northern Israel belonged to Naphtali.
The ayal, with his long, windy antlers, is an animal particularly suited to navigating the natural brush and foliage that covers much of the northern stretches of Naĥalat Naphtali. The image of these twisted antlers perfectly suits Naphtali, the “connecting” tribe devoted to weaving the intricate binds that tie our diverse nation together.
In contrast to Dan, who felt constrained within their naĥalah, Naphtali was granted a broad expanse of land. This naĥalah reflected the expansiveness and openness of Naphtali’s personality, one that could effectively mediate between others because he wished only to satisfy all parties. As a binder, he had more room, not less; he was not limited to a single point.20Dan, on the other hand, felt that they needed to fight in order to expand outward. Often, in our times, Israelis travel north to recharge their batteries, soaking in the spaciousness of Naĥalat Naphtali and enjoying the large expanse between villages. Anecdotally, a noted benefit of living up north is that there is a more generous, open spirit among local residents than is found in the more congested and busy center of the country.
Visiting Naĥalat Naphtali
Itinerary: Tel Ĥazor, Kibbutz Ayelet HaShahar, Tel Qedesh
We begin our tour at the imposing Tel Ĥazor, a massive ancient site by regional standards. This important city in Naphtali was originally Canaanite, reaching its apex in the Middle Bronze period (c. 1750 Bce) and then again as an Israelite city in the first half of Iron II (1000–720 Bce). Hazor cropped up in numerous ancient records, including the nineteenth century BCE Egyptian execration texts and the fourteenth century Bce el-Amarna correspondence between Canaanite kings and the Egyptian pharaoh. More detail about the city and its wealth is provided by the Mari archives, a huge collection of cuneiform texts dating to the eighteenth century Bce, discovered in the ancient Sumerian (later Hittite) city of Mari, in eastern Syria.
Enter the site and walk toward the tented lookout on the right. You’ll now see a trench that cuts through the many strata to reveal all the layers of the site, affording you a glimpse at the massive lower city, excavated by Yigael Yadin in the 1950s. Yadin exposed temples, basalt pillars and gates, and many other architectural curiosities and relics from Canaanite Hazor. The massive earthen ramparts circling the city made the conquest of Hazor a formidable challenge.
It was this Canaanite city that organized the northern cities to wage a campaign challenging Joshua, after Israel had defeated an alliance of southern Canaanite fiefdoms. King Jabin, a name of numerous sovereigns associated with Hazor throughout its history, organized the northern rulers against the Israelites:
When Jabin king of Hazor heard [of Joshua’s victory against the southern Amorite kings], he sent to Jobab, king of Madon, to the king of Shimron, to the king of Achshaph, to the kings from the north, in the mountain, in the plain south of Chinnereth, in the lowland.…All these kings gathered; they came and encamped together at the Waters of Merom to wage war with Israel.
Joshua 11:1–5
The excavations at Hazor have thus far uncovered seventeen cuneiform tablets, all written in Akkadian, tantalizing scholars with the prospect of a much larger cache waiting to be discovered. On one of these tablets is written the personal name, Ibni perhaps referring to the king of Hazor, whose name was given as Ibni-Addu (meaning “Hadad [Canaanite weather god] shall build”) in the Mari tablets. Ibni must have been one and the same as Jabin, king of Hazor from the Bible!
Make your way to the large, covered area on the acropolis of the tel. Here was the impressive Canaanite palace of Jabin. Successive temples or palaces were built on this, the highest point in the city, but it was Joshua’s Jabin who ruled from the remains of the palace you see before you.
In the preserved flagstone forecourt is a large white bamah, or cultic platform, set in front of two massive basalt pillar bases flanking the entrance to the throne room. Excavations yielded conclusive evidence of a massive conflagration that destroyed this palace, along with all of the other buildings from the thirteenth century BCE. Deliberate iconoclasm was also on the archaeological record in connection with this event, which followed the defeat of the northern Caananite alliance to Israel:
Joshua turned back at that time and conquered Hazor and struck its king with the sword, because Hazor had formerly been the leader of all those kingdoms. They killed every soul that was in it…he burned Hazor in fire.
Joshua 11:10–11
The dressed basalt orthostats of the throne room, still in situ, were topped with wooden beams before the mudbricks were laid, to protect the structure from earthquake damage, so the storied palace fell easily to fire, as the beams burned down. The mighty heat, helped along by wooden floors and large pithoi of oil in the building, cracked the dressed basalt and partially melted and reddened the mudbricks. Massive piles of soot discovered upon excavation and the still-charred walls complete the picture.
Turn back a bit to take in the famed Solomonic Gates, discovered by Yadin on a lucky hunch. He reasoned that since a uniquely structured six-roomed city gate was discovered in Megiddo, and since the architectural plans drawn up some fifty years before Gezer’s first excavations also hinted to an identical gate there, he was bound to find the third in the series here. He did, and dated it to Solomon. After all, the Tanakh refers to “a description of the levy imposed by Solomon to build the Temple of God, his own palace, the Milo, and the walls of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer” (I Kings 9:15). Since Hazor was grouped with Megiddo and Gezer in this verse as having been renovated during the same period, it stands to reason that the major architectural features, especially fortifications, would be uniform throughout.
Fortunate Yadin. In his first season at Hazor, he uncovered the six-chamber gate before you, identical to the one found in Megiddo. These two powerful northern cities, with Gezer in central Israel, were the focus of Solomon’s attention, as he embarked on his various countrywide building projects. And the residents of this city were from the tribe of Naphtali.
Visit the impressive water system built during the reign of the Israelite king Ahab in the ninth century Bce, which also parallels the renovations visited by that king on Megiddo. Ahab understood the importance of easy access to a city’s water supply during times of enemy siege. And the large Israelite four-room house and pillared storage facility, originally located on top of the destroyed Caananite palace, but meticulously moved to its present spot, illustrates further the material life of the Naphtali tribesmen of Hazor.
Our last stop in Hazor brings us to the era of the Judges, a relatively ambiguous period in the history of settlement in this city. According to the biblical record, there was yet another Jabin, king of the Canaanites, who ruled from Hazor. This other Jabin dominated the Israelites for twenty years until Deborah, their judge and leader, called on the military man Barak son of Abinoam to organize against him.
At the westernmost excavated area (Area #6), a cultic high place was uncovered; the basalt obelisk marks the temple center. It is inconclusive who exactly worshipped here, considering that the city was totally burned a few generations earlier and was only significantly rebuilt during the reign of Solomon. Did Jabin (not to be confused with the earlier Jabin who battled Joshua’s army) have a reduced hamlet here, an inherited headquarters from which he commanded the northern Canaanite clans alongside Sisera, who based himself much farther west in Harosheth-hagoiim?21It is likely that the single reference to Hazor in Joshua 4 was an accessory to the name Jabin, and that the four times that Jabin was named as “Jabin, king of Canaan” was of much more significance in determining that king’s domain during the period between Joshua and the monarchy. To conclude that this cultic installation was used by the Naphtali tribesmen during the period of the Judges is indeterminate, for we cannot rule out the possibility that the Canaanites reinhabited Hazor after its destruction in the thirteenth century BCE. For more on Harosheth-hagoiim, see “Visiting Naĥalat Menasheh” in chapter 13.
The cultic installation was eventually replaced with an Israelite fortress, most likely during the renovations dated to Ahab’s reign (concurrent with the advanced water system). Ascend the Israelite tower, the last structure to be added to the fortress in the eighth century Bce, from which the soldiers of Naphtali surely saw the Assyrian forces of Tiglath-Pileser advancing. It was the northernmost cities of Naphtali that fell to Assyria in their first wave of conquest in 732 Bce,22II Kings 15:29. followed a decade later by the complete exile of Malkhut Yisrael (the Northern Kingdom).
Pay a visit to a neighboring kibbutz serendipitously named Ayelet HaShahar – the Sages’ designation of Esther. This was the first kibbutz in the northern Galilee, founded in 1915. Its name suggests both Naĥalat Naphtali and the dawning of redemption, perfectly capturing the early pioneers’ ideology of resettling the biblical landscape to bring about national renewal.23Historian Ze’ev Vilnai writes: “The place’s Arabic name is Najmat a-Tzovakh, meaning ‘morning star,’ thus the name Ayelet HaShahar was given. The morning star, ayelet ha-shaĥar, symbolizes the rebirth of Israel in her land” (translation mine). From אגדות ארץ ישראל (ירושלים: קרית ספר, תשמ״א), 267.
Further symbolism to the name Ayelet HaShahar, which decidedly also pertains to the establishment of the modern-day yishuv that bears its name, is found in Yerushalmi, Berakhot 1, with a parallel in Yerushalmi, Yoma 3:
מסופר על רבי חייא רבא ורבי שמעון בן חלפתא שהיו מהלכים בבקעת ארבל וראו לפניהם את איילת השחר אשר אורה עלה ובקע בחשכת הליל. אמר רבי חייא רבא לחברו: “כך היא גאולתן של ישראל: בתחילה קמעא קמעא, כל מה שהיא [הגאולה] הולכת, היא רבה והולכת.
R. Ĥiya Rabbah and R. Simeon ben Ĥalafta were traveling in the plain of Arbel when they saw the ayelet ha-shaĥar, the morning star, rise and pierce through the night’s darkness. R. Ĥiya said to his colleague: So shall be the redemption of Israel. In the beginning it shall be incremental. As it starts going, though, it will gain strength and speed! Ayelet HaShahar has a small museum that houses some of the artifacts discovered over the years of excavation at Hazor.
We move further north to another large tel in Naĥalat Naphtali, the only tel in the mountainous region of the upper eastern Galilee. This is Tel Qedesh (Kedesh), one of the six cities designated an ir miklat, or city of refuge for one guilty of accidental manslaughter.24Joshua 20:17. These six cities were scattered on both sides of the Jordan. It was a residential center of Levites as well as Naphtalites, since the cities of refuge were allotted to the tribe of Levi throughout the Land of Israel.
Excavations thus far at Tel Qedesh have focused on the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman periods at the tel. Ancient Kedesh, originally an Early Bronze Canaanite city, still lies buried under these later layers of civilization. Traces of a large earthen glacis circling the tel date to the Canaanite Kedesh and indicate the large size and imposing defenses of the city. Judging by its proportions, it competed with Hazor in the monarchial period for top significance in Naĥalat Naphtali, although only a future archaeological excavation can provide more conclusive evidence.
Kedesh surfaces in a famous biblical episode in the period of the Judges.
Barak son of Abinoam, called to action by Deborah, hailed from Kedesh-naphtali. There is yet another Kedesh (identified as Ĥorvat Qedesh) in the southern region of Naĥalat Naphtali, to the east of Jabneel and in the general area of Mount Tabor. Most scholars suggest that this second Kedesh was more likely the city where Deborah and Barak mustered an army from Naphtali and Zebulun.25The city of Kedesh was listed between Megiddo and Jokneam in Joshua 12, further evidence that there was a Kedesh in the southern region of Naĥalat Naphtali. Since the battle took place in the vicinity of Mount Tabor and the Kishon River, and Sisera fled to an area near Kedesh where he met a gruesome death at the hands of the heroine Yael, it is unlikely that Tel Qedesh in the far north was involved in the biblical story.
What there is to see of Tel Qedesh thus far is confined to the northeastern section, accessible via the parking lot. Take a short stroll through the remains of ornately decorated Roman-era sarcophagi. One originally had the image of Nike, the winged goddess of victory (later iconoclasts have left contemporary visitors with only the wings from the goddess’s form to admire). Farther down the path was a most impressive Roman temple, dedicated to the sun god Helios. Much of the eastern entrance is still standing, complete with doorways, carved niches, and some stunning examples of carved stone lintels, pillar bases, and cornices (much of the stone lies scattered on the ground, felled by a fourth-century earthquake).
One final observation as you travel through Naphtali, especially in the northernmost stretches: the Torah scholarship in this naĥalah must be noted. Just around every corner you will encounter a tomb of one of the Tannaitic or Amoraic Sages. Most of their prodigious scholarly activity, redacted into the corpus of rabbinic literature that formed the bulk of the Oral Law, took place in the villages of the Galilee. Then the lands of Naphtali fostered another period of immense Torah scholarship hundreds of years later, during the kabbalistic renaissance of sixteenth-century Safed.