Creator Bio
Asaf ha-Rofe’
8th or 9th Century
Little can be said with certainty about Asaf ha-Rofe’ (“Asaf the physician”), the author of a significant Hebrew medical compendium titled The Book of Asaf, also called the Book of Remedies (Sefer refu’ot). It is likely that the name Asaf is a pseudonym. Recent scholarship has highlighted Persian and Syriac influences on its contents, although the surviving text is probably a later composite.
Content by Asaf ha-Rofe’
Primary Source
The Book of Asaf
And Noah wrote all these things in a book, and gave it to Shem, his older son. And from this book, the early sages translated and wrote many books, each one in his own language. And the knowledge of…
Primary Source
The Oath
[1] This is the pact which Asaph ben Berakhyahu and Yoḥanan ben Zabda made with their pupils, and they adjured them with the following words:
[2] Do not attempt to kill any soul by means of a potion…