With the death of Yosef, the Book of Bereishet (Genesis) comes to an end. The Book of Shemot (Exodus) chronicles the creation of the nation of Israel from the descendants of Yaakov. At the beginning of this week's Torah portion, Pharaoh, fearing the population explosion of Jews, enslaves them. However, when their birthrate increases, he orders the Jewish midwives to kill all newborn males.

Yocheved gives birth to Moshe and hides him in the reeds by the Nile. Pharaoh's daughter finds and adopts him, although she knows he is probably a Hebrew. Miriam, Moshe's sister, offers to find a nursemaid for Moshe and arranges for his mother Yocheved to be his nursemaid.

Years later, Moshe witnesses an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and Moshe kills the Egyptian. Realizing his life is in danger, Moshe flees to Midian where he rescues Tzipporah, whose father Yitro approves of their subsequent marriage. On Chorev (Mount Sinai), Moshe witnesses the burning bush where G-d commands him to lead the Jewish People from Egypt to Eretz Yisrael, the Land promised to their ancestors.

Moshe protests that the Jewish People will doubt his being G-d's agent, so G-d enables Moshe to perform three miraculous transformations to validate himself in the people's eyes: transforming his staff into a snake, his healthy hand into a leprous one, and water into blood. When Moshe declares that he is not a good public speaker, G-d tells him that his brother Aharon will be his spokesman. Aharon greets Moshe on his return to Egypt and they petition Pharaoh to release the Jews. Pharaoh responds with even harsher decrees, declaring that the Jews must produce the same quota of bricks as before but without being given supplies. The people become dispirited, but G-d assures Moshe that He will force Pharaoh to let the Jews go.

Birth of a Nation

I have a friend who became religiously observant in New York City. He had been attending a synagogue on a fairly regular basis. One day he was leaving the shul after the morning service. He was returning the paper yarmulke to its place at the shul’s entrance when he decided he wanted to "wear" his new-found religiosity more openly.

Leaving the shul, he turned, not toward his apartment but in the other direction. Within a few minutes he found himself at the door of a Jewish bookstore. At the end of the counter there was a carousel that carried the entire gamut of Orthodox Jewish headgear. Approaching the carousel, he began to turn it slowly.

He was amazed at the range of choices. There were white kipot and green kipot, black kipot, knitted kipot, leather kipot, velvet kipot, cloth kipot and kipot that looked like they had come off the head of an Afghan herdsman.

"Which one am I going to chose?" he thought to himself.

Without thinking too much about it, he picked a large black velvet kipah and plonked it on the top of his head. Making his way to the cashier, he paid for his new yarmulke, and walked outside, and stopped in his tracks.

Everything had changed.

He had changed. The world had changed.

He thought to himself, "I have become an ambassador. I have become an ambassador for the Jewish People. Everything I do now will be judged through the lens of my Jewishness. If I push in line, people won’t say, ‘Who is this guy pushing in line?’ They will say, ‘Who is this Jewpushing in line?’ And if I give up my seat to an elderly person on the subway, I will have sanctified the Name of Heaven."

Little do we realize that the good name of the Jewish People, and, in a sense, along with them, the G-d of the Jewish People rests on small pieces of cloth that are perched precariously upon our heads.

This week’s Torah portion marks the beginning of the birth of a nation.

"And there he became a nation."

The Haggadah of Passover quotes this verse and explains that the Jewish People were "outstanding" there in Egypt. They did not change their manner of dress, their names or their language. They were a very visible and very distinct minority.

As we were born, so we continue.

Every interaction a "uniformed" Jew has with the world-at-large has the potential to sanctify the Name of Heaven. And it can be done in the smallest of ways.

I have seen this same friend go up to garbage collectors (even if he does not live in the area) and say "Thank you!"

The other day he was in an art shop. He was looking for a very, very, fine paintbrush. He found four no. 0000s. To save himself another trip to the art store, he took all of them. In line to pay, he noticed the cashier looking at him with an expression of mild distaste.

Handing the brushes to her, he remarked, "I took the last of these brushes. You may want to reorder them so you will have them in stock when the next person comes along."

The assistant looked up at him for a second, and smiled.

We are all ambassadors in the birth of our nation.