Like everyone during the past two years of war, Naftali Kempeh spent his days longing for Mashiach and the Geulah
When Mashiach comes, our mouths will be filled with a song of pure joy. Until then, though, a Yid in galus lives in a perpetual state of mixed emotions. That basically sums up the title track of NAFTALI KEMPEH’s new album, AD SHEYAVO MASHIACH. There’s a chassidish vort on the pasuk from Tehillim, “Hazorim bedimah berinah yiktzoru — those who plant in tears will reap in joy” that we are “hazorim bedimah berinah” — sowing seeds in tears, yet in joy. A Yid who is in galus is sad even when he’s happy, and happy even when he’s sad.
“The painful lack of the Beis HaMikdash is with us even at the peak of our personal joy, and the inner joy of being Yidden is with us even in the depths of our sadness, ad sheyavo Mashiach vesham nashir shir chadash,” says Naftali, whose seventh original album came out this month. It is dedicated to the memory of Shalom ben Yehuda Menachem Hy”d, the son of a close friend and coworker of Naftali, a young man of 21 who was among a group of eight Jewish soldiers killed when terrorists blew up their armed personnel carrier in a tragic attack in Rafah during the first year of the war.
Like everyone during the past two years of war, Naftali Kempeh spent his days longing for Mashiach and the Geulah.
“The songs were composed during very scary times, but also times when nissim were all around us, and our hopes for Mashiach rose,” he says. The words of Yirmiyahu’s prophecy, “Ki nidacha karu lach Tzion — they call you (Tzion) a pariah,” which Kempeh sings on his first track, resonate strongly, as does the adjacent pasuk, “Ki aaleh aruchah lach, umimakosayich erpa’ech, ne’um Hashem — I will bring healing to you, says Hashem.” He says he sang this composition at a time when some small victories over our enemies brought comfort and encouragement.
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