Zohar Amar

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Zohar Amar

Zohar Amar (born 1960) is a professor in the Department of Land of Israel Studies at the religious-Zionist

Judaic studies
.

Notable research in recent years:

balsam plant; traditional medicinal drugs in the land of Israel; documentation of traditions regarding the kashrut
of various animals.

Biography

Zohar Amar, born in 1960, lives in Israel, married and the father of six children. He attended a

Mercaz HaRav Kook in Jerusalem. In his youth he worked as a tour guide and in the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel. Between 1985 -1990 he was the director of the Ecological Botanical Garden at Abu Kabir on the old Tel Aviv University campus. He completed his studies for the BA, Ma, and PhD degrees at Bar-Ilan University. 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. He is presently an associate professor at Bar-Ilan University and served as head of the Department of Land of Israel Studies
and Archaeology in 2004-5 and 2009.

Research methods

Zohar Amar has been involved in various areas of research that link

Jewish Studies. In his research he tries to apply almost every available piece of information, making extensive use of Hebrew literature and Arabic literature and the early, classical sources including ancient Greek, Latin, and Syriac literature. 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. Many studies were devoted to understanding the realia embedded in the treatises written by R. Saadia Gaon and Maimonides
.

Another of area of his research is related to an identification of the flora and fauna mentioned in the Scriptures and the

ostraca, proposed a recreation of the Temple showbread, initiated the restoration of the balsam plant to Israel, discovered the scarlet dye of the Torah (the Kermes oak coccid
) and produced dye from it, replicated the purple dye [argaman], made an identification of dyes in ancient textiles and a historical and laboratory identification of the raw materials used in papermaking in the Middle Ages in light of scientific testing of documents from the Cairo Genizah.

History of medicine in the ancient world

A study of the history of medicine in the ancient world has become one of the most important fields of research in historical scholarship. Amar established, in collaboration with Professor

Cairo Genizah
.

Zohar Amar has published in collaboration with colleagues several ancient medical manuscripts, such as the treatise of the Jerusalem physician a-Tamimi (10th century), the Sori ha-Guf by R. Nathan ben Yoel Falaquera (13th century), Practical Medicine of Rabbi

Hayyim Vital (16th century), and P’ri Megaddim by Rabbi David de Silva
, Physician of Jerusalem (18th century).

The kashrut of animals

Zohar Amar initiated a project which documents the kashrut traditions for various animals in Jewish communities around the world. The result was the publication of two books: The Locust in Jewish Tradition and The Tradition of Fowl in Jewish Halacha, as well as dozens of articles on the subject of kashrut which won recognition by religious authorities. In the course of his research, he managed to record ancient traditions from elderly referents. One of the direct products of this endeavor was the granting of official rabbinical sanction to the raising of buffalo (jamus) for meat in Israel. The historical Torah-based research was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Ari Zivotofsky, and it was he who demonstrated that Jewish Studies can constitute a field for applied research. 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. Among the clean animals whose milk was tested and curdled were: the ibex, red deer and giraffe.

Selected publications

  • Legends and Tales of Plants in the Botanical-Ecological Park, published by the Society for the Protection of Nature, Tel-Aviv 1987.
  • Foodstuffs and Industrial Products Grown in the Land of Israel during the Middle Ages, Jerusalem 1996.
  • A Historical Survey of Medicinal Substances in the al-Sham Region during the Middle Ages (640-1517 CE), Tel-Aviv 1999 (with E. Lev).
  • Agricultural Products in the Land of Israel in the Middle Ages, Jerusalem 2000.
  • Physicians, Drug, and Remedies in Jerusalem from the 10th-18th Centuries, Tel-Aviv 2000 (with E. Lev).
  • Maimonides' Regimen Sanitiatis: Commentary of R. Jacob Zahalon on Hilchot Deot – Chapter Four, Neve-Tzuf 2001.
  • The Book of Incense, Tel-Aviv 2002.
  • Ethnic Medicinal Substances of the Land of Israel, Jerusalem 2002 (with E. Lev).
  • The History of Medicine in Jerusalem, Archaeopress, Oxford 2002. (English)
  • Bamme Madlikin, Tel-Aviv 2003 (with A. Shwiky).
  • P'ri Megaddim by Rabbi David de Silva, Physician of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 2003.
  • The Tradition of Fowl in Jewish Halacha, Tel Aviv 2004.
  • The Land of Israel and Syria as Described by al-Tamimi: Jerusalem Physician of the 10th Century, Ramat-Gan 2004 (with Y. Serri).
  • The Locust in Jewish Tradition, Ramat-Gan 2004.
  • Sori ha-Guf by R. Nathan ben Yoel Falaquera (Edited & Commented with Y. Buchman, Tel- Aviv 2004.
  • Rabbi Yosef Kafih's Notebook on the Plants of the Mishna, Tel Aviv 2005.
  • Practical Medicine of Rabbi
    Hayyim Vital
    (1543–1620)    , Jerusalem 2006 (with Y. Buchman).
  • Tracking the Scarlet Dye of the Holy Land, Jerusalem 2007.
  • Practical Materia Medica of the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean According to the
    Cairo Genizah (With Efraim Lev
    ), Brill & Sir Henry Wellcome Series, 7, Leiden 2008 (677 pp.)
  • Merorim – Bitter Herbs, Tel Aviv 2008.
  • The
    Four Species
    Anthology    , Tel Aviv 2009
  • Etrogim of the Land of Israel: A modern study of their roots, Tel Aviv 2010.
  • Five Types of Grain: Historical and Conceptual Aspects,
    Yeshiva Har Bracha
    2011.
  • Flora of the Bible, Jerusalem 2012.
  • The Argaman (Purple), Porphura and Arjawan in Jewish sources and further inquiries into Tekhelet,
    Yeshiva Har Bracha
    2014.
  • Flora and Fauna in Maimonides's Teachings, [Machon Hatorah Veharetz] 2015.
  • Shmona Shratzim, [Machon Moshe] 2016.
  • Assaf's book of medicines : treatise on the properties of foodstuffs, Kiryat Ono 2022.
  • Arabian Drugs in Early Medieval Mediterranean Medicine, Edinburgh University Press, 2017 (with E. Lev).
  • Differing Halachic Customs between "Baladi" Yemenite and Other Jewish Communities, Neve Tzuf 2017.
  • The Beauty of gemstone: the Hoshen jewels and precious stones in the ancient world, Har Berach 2017.

External links

From the press

JUDY SIEGEL; Jerusalem Post; Aug 19, 2005; pg. 06;

  • Democratic choices, Jerusalem Post; Jan 10, 2003; pg. 03; (on the scarlet dye)
  • Sacred spices, YEHOSHUA SISKIN; Jerusalem Post; Dec 16, 2005; pg. 39;
  • The scent of holiness

Yehoshua Siskin; Jerusalem Post; Mar 26, 2004; pg. 45; (on the balsam)

ABIGAIL RADOSZKOWICZ; Jerusalem Post; Nov 23, 2004; pg. 01;

  • Buffalo meat is kosher, Chief Rabbi Amar rules

MATTHEW WAGNER; Jerusalem Post; May 10, 2006; pg. 02;

Notes

  1. ^ Associate Professor in the Department of Land of Israel Studies
  2. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original on July 21, 2011. Retrieved February 20, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) , http://halachicadventures.com/?p=376
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