Joshua Heschel Zoref was a 17th-century ascetic, and an important personality in the Lithuanian Sabbatean movement. During the messianic fervor of 1666, he claimed to experience visions similar to those of Ezekiel

Ezekiel

Ezekiel , "God will strengthen" , is the central protagonist of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible. In Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Ezekiel is acknowledged as a Hebrew prophet...

. He, like Judah Leib Prossnitz

Judah Leib Prossnitz

Judah Leib Prossnitz was a kabbalist born about the end of the seventeenth century at Brody, Galicia. He left his native city and went to Prossnitz, Moravia, where he married, earning a livelihood by peddling in the neighboring villages...

 also, considered himself to be possessed of the role of Messiah ben Joseph

Messiah ben Joseph

Messiah ben Joseph , also alternatively known as Messiah ben Ephraim , is a Messianic figure peculiar to the rabbinical apocalyptic literature. One of the earliest known mentions of him is in , where three statements occur in regard to him, for the first of which Rabbi Dosa is given as authority...

, with Shabbatai Tzvi playing the role of Messiah ben David.

Shortly thereafter he began trascribing his visions into five books. What has survived of these works show them to be entirely built upon the numerical speculations (gematriah) of Nathan Nata Spira

Nathan Nata Spira

Nathan Nata HaKohen Spira was a Polish rabbi and kabbalist. He had an important role in spreading Isaac Luria's teachings throughout Poland. Spira was the author of the Megaleh Amukot.Spira was a student of Meir Lublin....

. Some parts of this work, named Sefer Ha-Zoref, came to Nathan ben Levi, while others came into the possession of the Baal Shem Tov, who evidently valued them highly while unaware of their origins.

Scholem (1974) contains a lengthier biography.