recovering our identity

Very short of time this week, but did not want to skip writing something on the parsha.  Right after Hashem commands Moshe and Aharon (6:13) to go to Pharoah again and demand the release of Bn"Y,  וַיְדַבֵּר ה׳ אֶל מֹשֶׁה וְאֶל אַהֲרֹן וַיְצַוֵּם אֶל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאֶל פַּרְעֹה מֶלֶךְ מִצְרָיִם לְהוֹצִיא אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם., the Torah then gives us a genealogy lesson:  ...אֵלֶּה רָאשֵׁי בֵית אֲבֹתָם בְּנֵי רְאוּבֵן בְּכֹר יִשְׂרָאֵל חֲנוֹךְ וּפַלּוּא חֶצְרֹן וְכַרְמִי אֵלֶּה מִשְׁפְּחֹת רְאוּבֵן etc.  Rashi is already bothered by what the connection between these parshiyos is, and comments:

  מתוך שנזקק לייחס שבטו של לוי עד משה ואהרן בשביל משה ואהרן, התחיל לייחסם דרך תולדותם מראובן. ובפסיקתא הגדולה (פסיקתא רבתי ז׳) ראיתי: לפי שקינתרם יעקב אביהם לשלשה שבטים הללו בשעת מותו, חזר הכתוב לייחסם כאן לבדם, לומר שחשובין הם.

The Kozhiglover offers his own answer.  Chazal compare the Jewish people in galus Mitzrayim to embryo trapped in the womb. We know that עובּר ירך אמו הוא.  A embryo is like part of the mother, it has no real identity.  What Chazal are telling us is that in galus the Jewish people had become an adjunct of Egypt, they lost their sense of self, their identity. 

The chain of yichus recorded here is to remind Klal Yisrael of who they are -- a people who have a connection to the shevatim, a people who have their own forefathers and Avos distinct from the Pharoahs, distinct from the families and society of Egypt.  

We see all around us these days so many Jews who had identified as Americans, as Progressives, as part of one group or another, have woken up and started to remember their yichus, that they are part of Am Yisrael.  The first step to geulah is recovering one's own identity.