At the request of his father, he studied with Shneur Zalman of Liadi, who taught him the Babylonian Talmud and the commentaries of Rashi and Tosafists with a Hasidic viewpoint.
During this period in his young years, he began his ascent into asceticism, only seeing a few of his close friends, including the Schneur and his schoolmate Menachem Nachum Twersky, and HaMalach became the local Maggid.
[5] Another example of Avraham's asceticism came from when Rabbi Yitzhak of Radvil came to visit him on Tisha B'av, only to see him in meditation in mourning the destruction of the two temples, crying.
[8] HaMalach never took over his father's position as the Maggid of Mezeritch, and settled in Fastov, where he remained an ascetic recluse until his death on 26 September 1776 (12 Tishrei 5537).
[3] HaMalach is the author of Ḥesed le-Abraham (not to be confused with the work of Abraham Azulai of the same name), mainly structured like a Torah commentary, but also discusses the Mishnah, the Talmud, and the Jewish holidays.