At first
rabbi and
chief of the yeshivah at
Thessaloniki, he later filled the same offices at İzmir, where at the beginning he shared the rabbinate with
Joshua Ashkenazi Azariah. When differences of opinion arose between them in regard to matters of ritual, they appealed to the rabbis of Thessaloniki for arbitration. After his colleague's death, Escapa remained sole rabbi of İzmir until the end of his life.
David Conforte says he saw Escapa when the latter was about one hundred years old. Escapa was known for having been the teacher of
Ḥayyim Shabbethai and
Shabbetai Tzvi, whom later he
excommunicated. Escapa wrote an important work called
Rosh Yosef, a detailed commentary and
novellæ on the ''
Arba'ah Turim of Rabbi Jacob ben Asher. Part one, which has been published, contains a portion of the Ṭur Oraḥ Ḥayyim
(İzmir, 1658); part two, on Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ
, has been published up to ch. 76 (İzmir, 1659). He also wrote responsa; some were published under the title of Teshubot Rosh Yosef'' (Frankfort-on-the-Oder, 1709). ==References==