Joshua Heschel Zoref — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

Rabbi Joshua Heschel ben Rabbi Yosef Zoref (1633 – 1700) from Vilna, was a kabbalist and spiritual leader in Poland, author of Sefer HaZoref, and was considered a Sabbatean by researchers.

Rabbi Heschel was a great spiritual leader in Vilna. His nickname, Zoref, hailed from his occupation as a goldsmith (zoref or tsoref in Hebrew), and from the kabbalistic traditions which he practised, traditions related to ‘combining letters’ (combine in Hebrew is Tsiruf). According to tradition, Rabbi Heschel practised asceticism and celibacy and hardly ever left his home, claiming that the spirit of prophecy was hanging over him and that he could see God’s visions. The influence of Heschel Zoref spread beyond his immediate surroundings. He corresponded with many Sabbateans regarding theological issues, and was associated with people from the Beit Midrash (house of study) of the Sabbatean Rabbi Yehuda HeChasid.

For decades, Rabbi Heschel concentrated on writing, apparently writing thousands of pages divided into five sections and called Sefer HaZoref, which he dedicated to learning about the Messiah king, and in which he proves that all the 613 commandments are implied in the verse Shema Yisrael (the Hear, O Israel prayer). This literary activity started in 5426 (1665-6) at the peak of Shabbetai Zvi’s messianic activity during which time some defining events took place among the Sabbateans, and have not yet subsided.

His essays were never printed, which limited his influence after his death. An autograph of part of the Sefer HaZoref can be found in the National Library of Israel (formerly the Jewish National and University Library) in Jerusalem. There are close to three hundred densely handwritten pages on both sides.

In 1941, Ze’ev Rabinovich published a list of manuscripts which he had found in the archives of Joseph Pearl, a Maskil from Galicia, according to which Rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Hasidic movement, was an admirer of the Sefer HaZoref, and always said worlds could be built by this book. The researcher, Gershom Scholem identified the manuscripts of Rabbi Heschel which were in the possession of the Baal Shem Tov together with other manuscripts he had received from Rabbi Adam Baal Shem. Scholem asserts that they had purposely concealed Rabbi Heschel’s name as the author of the manuscripts, and had changed historical fact of the manuscripts into a wondrous Aggada (type of Rabbinic literature).

Towards the end of his life, Rabbi Heschel married the sister of Rabbi Meshulam Zalman son of Rabbi Yaakov Elazar Fischhof Auerbach, one of the heads of the Rabbi Yehuda Chassid and Rabbi Haim Malach group, and helped with the preparations for their immigration to the Land of Israel. However, they never immigrated and he died in Crakow to where he had moved from Vilna at the end of his life.

Heschel Zoref saw himself as a follower of the kabbalistic path taken by Rabbi Natan Netta Shapira from Cracow, author of the book Megaleh Amukot. This continuity is evident not only in his theoretical doctrine, but also in the messianic role that Rabbi Natan had attributed to himself or, at least, attributed the latter Aggada to him. In his research on the connection between the Sabbatean sect and the students of the Gaon Rabbi Eliyahu, Yehuda Liebes raised the possibility that Rabbi Avraham Shlomo Zalman Zoref was a descendant (or a great grandson) of Rabbi Heschel Zoref’s family, which forms the basis for the claim that Zoref is both the surname and the theological connection between the figures.

Source:  Wikipedia