יוסף אסקאפה

Rav Yosef Escapa (c. 5332/1572–5422/1662) served as rav of Izmir. He was most likely born in Skopje, then under Ottoman rule, and it is from that city that his name comes. He was first rav and rosh yeshiva in Salonika, and afterward held the same two positions in Izmir, where at the outset he shared the rabbanut with Rav Yehoshua Ashkenazi Azariah; when the two differed over questions of practice, they brought the matter to the chachamim of Salonika to decide between them. After his colleague’s passing he remained the sole rav of Izmir for the rest of his life. Rav David Conforte writes that he saw him when he was about a hundred years old.

Among his talmidim were Rav Chaim Shabbetai and Shabbetai Tzvi, upon whom he later pronounced a cherem. His main work is Rosh Yosef, a detailed commentary with chiddushim on the Arba’ah Turim of Rav Yaakov ben Asher; the first part, on a portion of Tur Orach Chaim, was printed in Izmir in 5418/1658, and the second, on Choshen Mishpat as far as siman 76, in Izmir in 5419/1659. A collection of his teshuvot appeared as Teshuvot Rosh Yosef in Frankfurt an der Oder in 5469/1709.