R. Zalman Zezmer was one of the greatest chassidim of the Alter Rebbe. He was an incredible maskil, used by the Rabbeim as a prime example for in-depth understanding of Chassidus.

He travelled to many places to teach Chassidus, and served as Rov in the town of Zezmer and later in Denenburg and Kraslava, where he is buried.

One of his talmidim was the esteemed chossid R. Hillel Paritcher.

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A number of factors brought R. Zalman to Chassidus. One of them was as follows:

R. Binyamin Kletzker, a great chossid of the Alter Rebbe, once visited R. Zalman’s town for Shabbos Zachor. As the parsha of Amalek was read from the Torah, Reb Zalman noticed strong emotions of hate and disgust on R. Binyamin’s face, something that he had never witnessed before. R. Binyamin’s davening also made a deep impression on him.

After davening, he approached him and asked, “Could you tell me what evil Amalek caused you that you hate him so much?”

“Our Rebbe explained what Amalek is all about,” R. Binyamin replied.

“Could I meet your Rebbe?” R. Zalman inquired.

R. Binyamin sent a letter with Reb Zalman to R. Meir Refael’s asking him to accept the young man and send him to Liozna.

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The Alter Rebbe would recite Chassidus for the older and newer Chassidim separately, and was very particular that neither group should attend the other’s Chassidus.

R. Zalman, already a seasoned chossid, wanted very much to attend the “yungeh Chassidus.” He asked his roommate in Liozna—a newer chossid—to notify him when he is called to a maamar so he could sneak in.

That afternoon, R. Zalman was napping, and when he heard about the maamar, he rushed out without washing neggel vasser. When the Alter Rebbe entered the room, he fervently exclaimed, “What’s this? Without neggel vasser?!”

R. Zalman quickly escaped.

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When the elder chossid, Reb Zalman Zezmer, wanted to arouse his own heart, he would tell the following story:

In his town lived a great lamdan who had outstanding middos, but he was not acquainted with Chassidus, and Reb Zalman tried to explain to him the effect that Chassidus has on a person’s middos.

Later on, this man traveled to the Alter Rebbe and asked about this, and the Alter Rebbe answered: “Animals also have middos, but they are instinctive, part of their nature: the raven is mean and the eagle is kind. By contrast, when HaShem created people, He made their middos keep step with their intellect and not merely be dictated by nature – in order to give them the merit of doing avoda and working on themselves.”

Hearing this, the man realized that all the good middos that he had developed were only instinctive, and he fell faint. When he came to, the Alter Rebbe showed him how to reach the superior middos tovos of Chassidus.

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Before his passing, R. Zalman said that he could account for every second of his life for the past seven years.