שאו את ראש כל עדת בני ישראל למשפחתם לבית אבתם
The Zera Shimshon wonders why the Torah traces each Jew’s lineage from his father’s line, rather than from his mother’s. First, a child’s Jewish identity is determined by his mother. (Matrilineal descent is one of the areas which the secular streams have attempted to alter, due to their diminishing numbers.) Second, the women in Egypt were at the center of safeguarding yichus, lineage, of the Jewish People. They refused to be violated by the Egyptians. Indeed, in addressing the familial names of each tribe, the Torah writes, mishpachas ha’Reuveni, mishpachas ha’Shimoni, “the family of Reuven, the family of Shimon” (Ibid….
