ויאמר יוסף אל אביו בני הם אשר נתן לי אלדים בזה ויאמר קחם נא אלי ואברכם (ויחי מח:ח-ט)

At the outset of WWI, the Chassid R’ Shmuel Sternberg a”h was drafted into the Austrian Army.  He was on watch duty between the borders of Austria and Switzerland.  Once, when on patrol, he decided to escape to Switzerland to save himself from the savages of war.  

However, being that his bride lived in Austria, there was no way he could marry her unless he returned home – where he could face being court-martialed!

His wedding was thus postponed for five years.  His future father-in-law, Reb Moshe Menachem Retek a”h, asked Maran Reb Yissocher Dov of Belz zt”l what to do about the situation.  Maran did not answer at first, but when he asked again, Maran told him to return with his daughter, the kallah.  

Maran told the kallah to travel to Switzerland, marry, and establish a ‘Yiddishe Shtub’ (Jewish home).  Maran cautioned her to continue acting like a daughter of a chassid and not defer from the ways of her parents.

Switzerland at the time lacked a Chassidic community but Reb Shmuel Sternberg and his new wife heeded the Belzer Rebbe’s advice and persevered, being scrupulous in upholding the Chassidishe flame in the cold country, managing to raise ehrliche children.

With time, when it was no more dangerous for R’ Shmuel to return to Austria, R’ Shmuel and his wife traveled to Yavriv (Yavoriv, Galicia) to visit her parents.  Since R’ Shmuel was a Baal Tefila with a beautiful voice, he was honored to lead the davening.  However, it was customary in that shul that a wife who wore a sheitel (wig) could not lead the davening.  When the question was presented to R’ Feivel Yavrever zt”l, who was a grandson of Maran the Sar Shalom of Belz zt”l, he said that according to the spiritual decline in Switzerland, if a woman still wears a sheitel – wig, it is considered as if she ties her head with a tichel – kerchief, like the women of Yavriv used to have.

The Belzer Rebbe Shlita explained this story by quoting our passuk: Yaakov saw that the children of Yosef did not dress like their forefathers and therefore he asked Yosef: “מי אלה” – Rashi explains: “Where did they descend from, that they are not worthy of a bracha?”

Yosef answered his father: “בני הם אשר נתן לי אלוקים בזה” – since they were born and raised here – in Mitzrayim, still, according to the current standards in Egypt, their clothes are befitting a grandchild of Yaakov – even though these same garments would not be suited for the children of Yaakov who were born and raised in Eretz Yisroel.”