Zohar Amar

Notable research in recent years:[2] Documents from the Cairo Genizah as a source of information about medicine in the Middle East in medieval times; pigments in ancient textiles; the early papermaking industry; kermes oak coccid as the source of the Biblical scarlet dye; purple dye; the balsam plant; traditional medicinal drugs in the land of Israel; documentation of traditions regarding the kashrut of various animals.

His doctoral dissertation was entitled: “Agricultural Production in the Land of Israel during the Middle Ages; Description and Changes”, under the supervision of Prof. Yehuda Feliks and Prof. Yosef Drory.

Zohar Amar has been involved in various areas of research that link Torah and science, presenting a new examination of the classical Jewish sources and offering a different perspective on conventional thinking.

Special emphasis is placed on Jewish and Moslem sources which were written in Arabic in the Middle Ages, presenting their contribution to an understanding of the cultural and material flowering in the Islamic world.

He also published, in collaboration with other scholars, a new proposal for identifying the ‘clean’ animals in the Torah in light of the archaeo-zoological findings uncovered in the Land of Israel and its environs.

A considerable part of his work is devoted to the study of the plant life and agriculture mentioned in the Scriptures, Mishnah, and Talmud, which includes actually cultivating crops and reconstructing the manufacture of the products derived from them.

In one study in which Zohar Amar participated, it was proven that the curdling of milk in mammals is a reliable parameter to distinguish between Biblically-determined ritually clean and unclean animals.