Gabriel Esperanssa

Gabriel Esperanssa, also spelled Esperanza or Esperança, was a 17th-century rabbi at Safed. He was originally from Salonika,[1] where he was a disciple of Daniel Estrumsa.[2] He apparently assumed the name of a woman called Esperanssa (Spanish for "hope"), who adopted and educated him as an orphan.[3]

He was an exceptional Talmudic scholar and had studied together with David Conforte in Salonica.[4] He later became acquainted with Jonathan Galante, (father of Moses Galante of Jerusalem), in Safed. Esperanssa was contentious and dogmatic[3] and engaged in a disputation with the Egyptian rabbi Mordecai ben Judah HaLevi.[1] Esperanssa was at the helm of the re-establishment of the Jewish community of Safed a few years after the 1660 massacre.[5] He served on the Safed rabbinate in 1677[4] and may have officiated as the chief rabbi of Safed at the time.[6] He was one of the four people chosen by the Constantinople rabbinate to investigate the prophetic claims of Nathan of Gaza.[6]

He left several works, but only the collectanea to the Pentateuch have been published.[3] A few of his responsa have survived in citations.[1]

References
  1. Isaac Landman (1941). The Universal Jewish encyclopedia ...: an authoritative and popular presentation of Jews and Judaism since the earliest times. The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, inc. p. 166. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  2. Eduardo Weinfeld (1951). Enciclopedia judaica castellana: el pueblo judio en el pasado y el presente; su historia, su religión, sus costumbres, su literatura, su arte, sus hombres, su situación en el mundo. Editorial Enciclopedia Judaica Castellana. p. 220. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  3. Kaufmann Kohler & Lazarus Grünhut. Gabriel Esperanssa, 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography: Chaim Azulai, Shem HaGedolim, s.v.; Conforte, Ḳore HaDorot, end.K.
  4. Raphael Halperin (1985). Aṭlas ʻets-ḥayim. Heḳdesh Ruaḥ Yaʻaḳov. p. 129. Retrieved 6 October 2011.
  5. Narcisse Leven; Alliance israélite universelle (1920). Cinquante ans d'histoire: L'alliance israélite universelle (1860-1910). F. Alcan. p. 236. Retrieved 18 September 2011. Cette prospérité s'évanouit lorsque, en 1660, sous le règne de Mohammed IV, la ville fut prise par les Arabes et saccagée au point qu'il n'y resta plus que de faibles débris de la communauté. Celle-ci se reconstitua trois à quatre ans plus tard sous l'autorité de R. Gabriel Esperanza, mais fut de nouveau désorganisée, en 1758, lorsque Safed fut à peu près détruite par un terrible tremblement de terre
  6. Gershom Gerhard Scholem (1 January 1976). Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah, 1626-1676. Princeton University Press. p. 370. ISBN 978-0-691-01809-6. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
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