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]