R. Ziskind was a Rov in Kurenitz and the son of R. Zalman Kurnitzer, an outstanding chossid of the Alter Rebbe. He was great in Torah and Chassidus and was a devoted chossid of the Tzemach Tzedek. He was a baal madreiga and chassidim used to say that he had ruach hakodesh.
(בית רבי ח"ג (הוצאה חדשה) עמ' 394, שמועות וסיפורים ח"א עמ' 263)
There was once a terrible plague in Kurnitz and many children were passing away r"l. R. Ziskind asked that everyone come to the main shul on a given date to daven to Hashem to avert the decree.
The night before, he instructed his shamash to go to the cemetery and take a small stone from atop two different graves. The shamash said that he was afraid to go at night to the cemetery all alone, but R. Ziskind gave him his staff and encouraged him.
When the shamash returned, R. Ziskind instructed him to place one stone at the entrance of the men’s section of the shul, and the other at the entrance of the women’s section. As people started pouring into shul the next day there was suddenly a tumult; a man had tripped over a stone and was badly hurt. When the doctor arrived the man was pronounced dead. The same thing happened to a woman in the woman’s section.
It later emerged that these two people had been sinning, and had caused the plague. R. Ziskind had seen this with ruach hakodesh and arranged for the sinners to be caught. This brought an end to the plague.
(שמועות וסיפורים ח"א עמ' 263)
On the day R. Ziskind passed away, when no one else thought that his time had come, he asked that the doctor, a kohen (who may not be under the same roof as a deceased person), leave the house, sensing that he was about to pass away.
(חסידים הראשונים ח"א עמ' 58)
