Zechariah ha-Rofé, or "Zechariah the physician" (Hebrew acronym: Harazah= הרז"ה), also known as Yiḥye al-Ṭabib, was a Yemenite Jewish scholar of the 15th-century, renowned for his authorship of the work, Midrash ha-Ḥefetz, a commentary and collection of homilies on the Five Books of Moses (Pentateuch) and on the readings from the Prophets which he began to write in 1430, and concluded some years later.
[3] All sections of the Judeo-Arabic texts have been translated into Hebrew by Meir Havazelet in his 1990–1992 revised editions of the work, to accommodate a largely Hebrew-speaking readership.
In later years, Zechariah ha-Rofé also wrote a commentary on his Midrash ha-Ḥefetz at the behest of one of his students, in an attempt to elucidate sections where the author had promised to expand more on the allegorical subjects he addressed but had failed to do so, calling it al-Durra al-Muntakhaba ("the Choice Pearl").
[3] As with many Jewish surnames, a distant relative's profession was often applied to the family name in recognition of that ancestor and his pedigree.
[10][9] Be apprised that in the year 1747 of the Seleucid era (= 1436 CE), there was a very great plague, and epidemic, and death, and of the people none remained other than a few in most cities.
[16][17] Zechariah ha-Rofé also compiled a medicinal work in the Judeo-Arabic script, entitled Kitāb al-Wajīz ("The abridged book"), in which he opens with the unequivocal claim that the "cupping therapy (withdrawing of blood from the body by the use of suction cups)[a] and cauterization (the application of a hot iron to one's forehead)[b] are the most basic essentials of the medical practice, although a person's recovery [from his ailment] is dependent solely upon God.
"[18] The former was practised in Yemen by making an incision in the lower back of the neck and withdrawing blood with the aid of small horns.
[20] Occasionally, however, the author brings down superstitious practices (supernatural cures) as a remedy for certain ailments, such as spitting into a frog's mouth and releasing the frog in water to abort an unwanted pregnancy, or to hang the skin of a donkey or a wolf's canine tooth and its skin to a child who is disturbed by excessive fear.