From me, and then we move on. As I was reviewing the Parsha, I was struck by how odd some of the names were for the שבטים. I know just about all of you learn or teach this, or at least have within the last few years, so you must have some ideas. The first four - Reuven, Shimon, Levi & Yehuda, all make perfect sense. Then come the בני בלהה named by Rachel. Dan I guess is OK too, but Naftali seems very strange. "And Rachel said: 'With mighty wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed.' And she called his name Naphtali." There are other translations, but that is the basic gist. By what possible standard can Rachel claim to have "prevailed" over her sister with four sons? Because her maid-servant had a second one?
And Leah's subsequent naming is also bizarre. She names זלפה's children reflecting how lucky she feels, but then names Yissachar for the reward she got for giving זלפה to Yaakov! One answer to this question, that I'm familiar with says that really the reward was for the Dudaim, but it was unseemly to put in his name (see Moav), so she euphemistically attributed it to something else. The two rewards (שכר) are represented by the two "sin"s (שs) in his name, but one of them, the one for the Dudaim, is silent.
Any other ideas?
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