Day 560 - Israeli scientists resurrect biblical date palm

The Times of Israel Daily Briefing

The Times of Israel

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4.4 • 864 Ratings

🗓️ 18 April 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

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Summary

Welcome to a bonus episode of The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join diplomatic reporter Lazar Berman and host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe. In today's episode, environment reporter Sue Surkes makes a guest appearance, stepping in for Berman.

This is a week of spring holidays, and so we are dedicating the program to some of the biblical flora of the Land of Israel.

In honor of Easter, which is celebrated by much of Christendom on Sunday, we begin with a date palm that was brought back from the dead and a plant that resurrects itself.

In 2008, Dr. Elaine Solowey germinated a 1,900-year-old date palm seed that took the name Methuselah after the long-lived biblical character. She has since gone on to revive several more ancient seeds, including females that bear fruit. Surkes tells the story of Solowey's amazing success -- and describes how the dates taste.

Next, we hear about the Rose of Jericho, which was named for the biblical city of Jericho that constantly rose from its ashes -- and still stands today. It's an extraordinary story of a plant surviving in the harshest of circumstances.

We then turn to a tree that is called the Christ-thorn jujube (shezaf). Traditionally, this type of tree was used to create the thorny crown that Jesus wore on his last journey down the Via Dolorosa.

Surkes then speaks about the olive tree -- both the last few remaining "wild" variety located near Atlit, and the cultivated variety. She turns to Psalm 128 to show how being acquainted with the flora of the Land of Israel gives a deeper meaning to the text.

And finally, we speculate on the Garden of Eden's "forbidden fruit." Was it an apple? Or maybe a fig?

Friday Focus can be found on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and the video was edited by Thomas Girsch.

IMAGE: Dates harvested from 'Hannah,' the first female palm tree germinated from 2,000 year-old seeds discovered in the Judean desert, are displayed in Kibbutz Ketura in southern Israel, on September 27, 2021. (Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Times of Israel's Friday Focus. Today is Friday, April 18th, Day 559 of the War.
0:10.3	I'm your host, Deputy Editor Amanda Borschal Dan, here with the environmental reporter, Sue Sirks, stepping in for Laser Bearman, who should be back next week.
0:20.3	Sue, thank you so much for joining me today.
0:22.9	It's a pleasure, Amanda.
0:24.3	This is a week of spring holidays, and so we thought to dedicate the program to something very
0:29.8	different from our diplomacy and politics and IDF and military, and we are going to talk about
0:36.4	the biblical flora of the land of Israel.
0:40.3	So especially we're going to drill into some of those who have a resurrection theme for our
0:46.4	Christian brothers and sisters who are celebrating Easter this week.
0:50.6	So we're going to talk about the revival of an ancient date palm, the rose of Jericho,
0:56.4	and much, much more when we're back.
1:05.8	Listeners of this podcast might be familiar with Sapir, a quarterly journal devoted to ideas for a thriving
1:11.6	Jewish future, edited by Brett Stevens of the New York Times. Every issue of Sapir focuses on a theme
1:17.8	relevant to Jewish life and offers practical solutions to the problems facing the Jewish people
1:22.5	and the Jewish state. Past themes have included Zionism, anti-Semitism, and the war in Israel.
1:29.1	If you live in the U.S., you can now receive SIPIR delivered directly to your home free of
1:33.3	charge, which is kind of amazing, considering how high quality it is. The current issue on diversity
1:38.7	even includes an article in English by Israel's president Isaac Herzog, who is himself an avid reader.
1:48.9	Go to superjournal.org slash Times of Israel and sign up for your free subscription.
1:54.9	That's S-A-P-I-R-Journal.org forward slash Times of Israel.
1:59.1	And start receiving this excellent publication in the mail, absolutely free.
2:21.6	In 2008, Dr. Elaine Soloway successfully germinated a 1,900-year-old date palm seed that she named, or others named Methuselah after the long-lived biblical character.
	...

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