Rubie Minkowitz

I had the zechus to learn under Reb Volf for two years around 20 years ago.I remember him coming to me one morning and asking if I had said brochos before learning chassidus. I thought to myself that is an unusual question coming from Reb Volf, but then it dawned on me that I actually had forgotten brochos that morning!He asked me that question twice more over the next 2 years and both instances he new that I had forgotten to say brochos that morning.

One year while the bochrim were preparing the lagboamer parade, he came up to me and told me that the signs needed to be in loshon kodesh.. I asked him why since more people would understand the English/French signs. He told me that the power of the Oiseos will have a much greater affect on the people.

In my final year in Montreal, he made me sit next to him for an entire year while giving the shiur in hemshech semech vov. I asked him once why did he insist on me sitting next to him and he told me that he remembered my elter zaideh well and the zaideh would be happy. I told him that my zaideh would be happy enough for me learning in any location so he replied that the gemorah says that the shechina rests on tall people and that I need to sit next to him.