The Unique Legacy of Naphtali: What Sets It Apart?

In Parashat Bamidbar, the lineages of all the tribes of Israel are listed. For each tribe, it says 'the sons of Reuben'… 'the sons of Simeon'… but for Naphtali, it simply says 'the sons of Naphtali.' Why is that? What makes this tribe stand out?

Rabbi Jacob Baal HaTurim offers an interesting explanation: there were more daughters than sons in the tribe of Naphtali, which is why the emphasis on 'the sons' was omitted. He adds that even in the blessing of Naphtali it says, 'Naphtali is a free doe, affluent,' abbreviating to woman, hinting at the abundance of women.

The brilliant Chida presents another fascinating explanation, attributed to 'one of the great sages of Poland': the tribe of Naphtali was counted last and since the total number of Israelites was already known, and all the other tribes had already been counted, there was no need to count Naphtali separately. The remainder from the total after subtracting the other tribes' numbers would give their count. Hence, instead of listing 'the sons of Naphtali,' it simply settled on 'sons of Naphtali' such and such.

The Netziv of Volozhin writes a similar explanation in the name of the holy Arizal: there was a large box containing slips with the numbers for each family in Israel. From this box, slips were drawn for 12 separate boxes, one for each tribe. The leader of each tribe came and took all the slips designated for their tribe, and when the eleven tribes had taken their slips, only the Naphtali slips remained in the large box.