Today, we're going
to talk all about dates. Not the ones that you go out on
with your loved ones, but the ones you eat. (Sergio) <i>Deeply rooted
in Israeli history and culture,</i> <i>the date is a delicious fruit,</i> <i>and Israel is very famous for it.</i> <i>In fact, Israel produces
75% of the entire world production</i> <i>of the medjool dates,</i> <i>which are considered
the highest quality dates</i> <i>and are in top demand.</i> <i>But these infamous Israeli dates</i> <i>are actually not Israeli.</i> <i>These dates were imported from California</i> <i>and originated in Morocco</i> <i>because the real Israeli date trees</i> <i>had been extinct for 2,000 years.</i> <i>But recently,</i> <i>the unbelievable happened.</i> <i>Archaeologists found
a 2,000-year-old seed,</i> <i>which after they had
successfully germinated it,</i> <i>it brought forth
the extinct Judean palm tree.</i> Wow! Look how big it is! I can't believe this is it. It's amazing. (Sergio) <i>In this episode,</i> <i>we will visit the date farms
in the Arava desert</i> <i>to see the Judean date palm</i> <i>that had resurrected
from the dead after 2,000 years,</i> <i>and, as a bonus, share with you</i> <i>a frozen date recipe
that will have you go...</i> ♪ (playful music) ♪ Dates are the staple food
of the Judean desert. In fact, they are called
the meat of the desert because they're full of energy. They are so good for you, and they can fill you up very well. Even in the biblical times, they're used as medicine for boils
and different types of diseases. They are mentioned
in the Bible a few times. But not only that, they were also the symbol
of the Judean kingdom. They found coins -- ancient coins -- with the palm tree stamped on the coins, but also today, we have that
on our 10 shekel coin. Look at that. There is a palm on it. Date palm trees are all over Israel, from north to south, but did you know that none
of them are original to this land? That's right. The dates as we have in Israel today are not original to this land. Where they come from? Morocco. ♪ (music) ♪ Behind me is a date farm where they grow medjool dates. This is the king of the dates. They're large. They have a lot of meat.
They're delicious. That's probably what you would buy, and that's what Israel exports
to the entire world, but they're not original to this land. They come from Morocco. You see, about half a century ago, Moroccan medjool trees,
they died due to disease. So the rest gets out the trees
to California. In the 70s, they brought them to Israel and found out that if they grow
them here in the Arava, in the southeast desert of Israel, they grow to their best potential, but they're not original. What happened to the original
Judean date palm? What happened to the date palms
that we read about in the Bible? Where is their fruit? We're about to find out. ♪ (music) ♪ There are two theories why and when Judean trees went extinct. The first one dates
all the way back to AD 70. The Romans destroyed
the temple and the Judean trees. Since then, they've been extinct. The second theory is that they survived
all the way until the 14th century. Some time around the Mamluk period, the climate change in this region, and they died. The Judean palm tree and the dates went from being the fruit of the region to a joke where writers who came here
after the 14th century-- because they couldn't find
any damn palm trees around-- it was like a joke,
"Were they really here?" Where are they?" In the 60s, during the excavations at Masada, archaeologists found an ancient jar. In the jar were ancient date bits. They did radiocarbon dating on them. It estimated the time
to the first century. Those are really old ancient date seeds. What did they do with them? They take them to Bar-Ilan University to a storage room where they laid for 40 years until 2005 when Dr. Elaine Solowey
took some of those seeds, germinated them, and guess what? One seed sprouted. They planted it in a kibbutz nearby in the Arava - and Kibbutz--
- Ketura. - Ketura.
- Yeah. So let's go there - and take a look at that tree. Yeah.
- Let's go. I'm so excited. I can't believe it. If you're thinking, how's it even possible
that a 2,000-year-old seed can become a tree? It would still sprout after all that time. It's almost doesn't make sense. What is it? Is it the seed
cannot die? Is it eternal? Or it's quite the opposite. A seed wouldn't germinate until it dies. It's actually pretty cool. If you think a seed,
it needs to dry, needs to die, and it stays like this with the innate,
all information inside until water touches it, and then it receives life. Think about it.
Water touches it, it receives life. That's not new because Leviticus speaks about it. The symbolism is just incredible. In Leviticus, it says that a seed, if it touches a dead corpse
or something unclean, it stays clean. You don't need to do anything with it.
Why? Because the seed is dead in itself. But if water touched the seed, life enters it, and then it touches an unclean thing,
like a corpse or something else, then it becomes unclean. The logic in that is huge because until life enters the seed, it's still dead. Water must enter the seed
for it to receive life. It's just incredible symbolism here. Also with Jesus being the living water that enters us that-- Souls are bound to die, generally. But through Christ who cleanses us-- He is the living water; who drinks from Him
will never thirst again-- He enters us, and we receive eternal life. Wow. You got this? ♪ (majestic music) ♪ (Rhoda) This is Methuselah. The first to revived Judean date palm since hundreds and hundreds of years ago. It is amazing. It's called Methuselah
after the oldest character in the Bible. It makes sense. It is standing here tall and beautiful. Now, the only unfortunate thing
about this tree is that it's a male tree. What does that mean? It means that it cannot bear fruit. But what it can do? It can pollinate
other female trees to bear fruit. They made a research. The closest trees to this one by DNA is an Egyptian date palm tree
called Hayani date palm. That's what they wanted to do, to crossbreed this one
to the Egyptian date palm tree to get as close as possible to the date fruit that we had
about 2,000 years ago, but there's a better option. Let's go check it out. ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ Wow. Since 2005, they use more of the seeds found in Masada to germinate them. Three of them work. They're right here. We asked, and they don't know yet
if they are male or female. They will know when they flower. But I hope so much
that one of them is female because then we can taste -- original
from the times of Jesus -- dates. Imagine that! Imagine that. How awesome is that? Very exciting. We should definitely
come back here when they flower and check out if we're going to have
a new production of Judean dates. We've got a return here. This is incredible because they could
restart the Judean crops out of this. Think about it: in a few years, we could have Judean dates. Really! In shops and stuff. Isn't it amazing? It's just mind-baffling. As promised, now is the time
for the secret frozen date recipe. ♪ (playful music) ♪ This is the date that you know. The dried, ripened, medjool date. Very sweet, soft. That's what you see in the stores. Before it ripens, it looks like this. Now, you don't want to eat this. It's not too sweet. Before it ripens, it's not the best. However, there's another variety comes from the Hayani date palm. You see, it's more round, not as oval as the medjool date. What is special about it
is that it's much sweeter. If it ripens, it becomes extremely soft, the skin peels away, and you can just ship it
to a different country because it's not going
to look very appealing. It's going to be all mushed-up. But what you can do with them is eat them fresh just in this form of the tree. Because they're so sweet
before they ripen, they're already sweet enough
for consumption. Here's the secret recipe
that Rhoda's family shared with me, and I'm going to share with you. These are best eaten when frozen. All you have to do
is buy them fresh in the store, then go ahead and put them in the freezer. Just freeze them. In the summer, you'll have a delicious summer delight. Wow! That is just too good. Almost like a sweet mini melon. I'm going to set a world record on the shortest time it's going to take from asking a woman
to have a date with you until the time
you actually have a date with her. Are you ready? Are you ready? I don't know. All right. - Would you have a date with me?
- Yeah. (ding) Okay. Here you go. Have a date. Come on, the time is ticking. Faster, we're breaking
the world record here. - Breaking the world record.
- Here you go. There you go. Yes! Yes! Yeah! We broke the world record. High five. You're so cheap. That's what it is. That's four shekels a bag.
At least four shekels. So cheap. (laughs)
