Another tzaddik since we’re in the topic of tzaddikim now…
The Shpoler Zeide would refer to himself with all sorts of derogatory names like beheima (animal). He was once in Liozna during the nesius of the Alter Rebbe and he stayed in the attic above the shul. The Alter Rebbe once went up to see him and while he was on the stairs, the Shpoler Zeide said the verse, “Who will go up on the mountain of Hashem etc.” When the Alter Rebbe got upstairs, the Shpoler Zeide said, “you are going to an old beheima,” and he began denigrating himself.
My father [the Rebbe Maharash] told me that since his neshama was from b’n, he referred to himself as a beheima. Generally, the souls of b’n need to nullify themselves.
(Toras Sholom)
SINCE THEN I’VE FELT WARM
The Shpoler Zeide was a man of intense fervor, far more than any of his colleagues – the Maggid’s other disciples.
When he visited the Alter Rebbe in Liadi in 5569 or 5570 (1809 or 1810) he related that when he was a child of three he saw the Baal Shem Tov. “He placed his holy hand on my heart and ever since I have felt warm.”
(HaYom Yom 14 Teves)
HIS REVELATION
Somewhere else it is told that when the Shpoler Zeide was about three or five, he went to see the Baal Shem Tov when he was in Shpole. The Baal Shem Tov blessed him and after blessing him, he placed his holy hand on the child’s head and heart. Ever since, said the Shpoler Zeide, I felt my mind open to Torah study and a yearning of the heart for serving the Creator and Ahavas Yisroel.
Source: Beis Moshiach