ḤIYYA ROFE:

By: Richard Gottheil, M. Seligsohn

Rabbi of Safed; died in 1620. Having studied Talmud under Solomon Sagis and Cabala under Ḥayyim Vital, Ḥiyya was ordained in accordance with the old system ("semikah") reintroduced into Palestine by Jacob Berab. In 1612 Ḥiyya gave his approbation to Issachar Baer Eulenburg's "Be'er Sheba'." Most of Ḥiyya's works have been lost; the remainder were published by his son, Meïr Rofe, under the title "Ma'aseh Ḥiyya" (Venice, 1652), containing novellæ on several of the Talmudic treatises, and twenty-seven responsa. These were revised by Moses Zacuto, who added a preface.

G. M. Sel.