שאו את ראש כל עדת בני ישראל למשפחתם לבית אבתם…ואתכם יהיו איש איש למטה איש ראש לבית אבותיו הוא (במדבר א: ב-ד)

Take a census of the entire assembly of Bnei Yisroel according to their families, according to their fathers’ household…And with you shall be one one from each tribe: a man who is a leader of his father’s household.

When the holy Mezritcher Maggid – the Rebbe R’ Ber zt’’l was a child, a fire broke out in their home and the Rebbe R’ Ber saw his mother crying bitterly over their fate.  He asked his mother why she was crying and his mother answered him: “I’m not crying over the physical loss of our burnt home, I’m crying over our“Yichus-letter” (a document detailing the family’s noble heritage) which got burned.”

The Rebbe R’ Ber consoled his mother by saying: “Mother, don’t cry.  From now on there will start a new ‘Yichus’ -lineage, from myself and on…”

Based on this story the pesukim in the parsha can be explained: שאו את ראש כל עדת בני ישראל למשפחתם לבית אבתם – Hashem commanded Moshe Rabbinu to count the Yidden and list their Yichus that they are grandchildren of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov.  And then the Torah adds: “איש ראש לבית אבותיו הוא” – every Yid should also work on himself to be a “ראש לבית אבות” – from him shall also start extending a new and nice Yichus…”