♪ (music) ♪
(Sergio groaning and breathing heavily)
Let's get higher up on the hill.
Today, Yossi and I go on our annual adventure.
This time, we head to the Tabor Stream,
which was believed to be the biblical river Kishon.
Oh. I can feel we're getting really close, right?
This is the same river where Sisera encamped with his Canaanite army
and where Deborah prophesied their defeat.
Wow, look at this!
- (Yossi)
♪ (music) ♪
(Yossi)
(Sergio)
is the fact that this stream starts all the way in Nazareth
and flows down to the Jordan River,
making this a possible route for Jesus to take
when he ministered in this area.
Can you imagine Jesus walking here 2,000 years ago
from Nazareth?
- I appreciate this trail so much more. - It's so cool.
So, today Yossi and I go on an adventure
in search of the biblical river Kishon.
(Yossi)
Here it is. Wow!
(Sergio)
I'm a little nervous.
♪ (music) ♪
THE ANCIENT KISHON
8 HOURS EARLIER
(birds chirping)
4:00 AM UPPER NAZARETH
(patting)
(whispering) Just in case.
All right.
- Are you ready? - Yeah, let's do it.
♪ (music) ♪
(Sergio)
we decided to get out very early
and make it to the river before the break of dawn.
The location where we're going to is called Tabor Stream,
and it is very close to the mountain of Tabor,
the traditional site of Jesus' transfiguration.
But to get to this site, we must first pass through a kibbutz,
and because we got out so early, the kibbutz could be closed,
making it impossible to reach the stream.
♪ (suspenseful music) ♪
There's a guy there.
(Yossi)
(Sergio)
(Yossi)
(Sergio)
We were afraid that this place was going to be closed,
but this moshav or kibbutz is open,
and we can now park our car here safely
and then make our way down to the stream.
So this is a great starting point.
Making it safely through the kibbutz gate,
we are now able to get to the starting point of our hike.
We're gonna go just a bit more down here,
and it's gonna get pretty scary, so...
Oh my goodness. Oh!
Whoa. All right. I think we're gonna make it.
Due to the heavy winter rains,
the road is getting too difficult to drive,
so we're going to park the car at the top
and walk by foot from now on.
It's so quiet.
- Remember Mount Hermon? - Yeah.
I mean, this is not as quiet as Hermon, but still, this is...
(birds chirping)
All right, I think we're ready.
- You ready to go? - Yeah, we're ready.
- Let's do it. - Let's do it.
♪ (Jay Denton, “Mold Breakers”) ♪
Wow!
Look at the beauty of this.
-
Wow, look at the sunrise. It's so beautiful.
As we go down to the river,
we realized that the ancient village of Nain,
where Jesus raised the widow's son from the dead,
is just a few kilometers away.
It's a unique opportunity to be out here today and hike the trail
and remember where Jesus could have walked.
♪ ("Mold Breakers" continues) ♪
(Sergio)
- (Yossi)
You can see a little river flow right there.
So I think the walk continues over there, right?
(Yossi)
- (Sergio)
Let's cross it.
(Yossi)
- (Sergio)
Oh, no. That was way too cold for my blood.
Now that we have crossed the water,
there should be ancient ruins in the vicinity,
an excavation site that goes by the name Tel Rekhesh.
We are getting closer to something ancient,
and I wonder if this hill is a tel,
and there is an ancient place up there.
Hey, this area could be of historical significance,
and potentially biblical significance.
- So let's go and explore. - Yeah, let's do it.
♪ (dramatic music) ♪
The narrow opening between the thorns
makes us believe that this trail will lead us to the ancient site.
However, climbing it will not be easy.
(groaning and breathing heavily)
-
Oh wow, look!
This is definitely ancient. Look at that.
They've excavated here.
This is ancient.
-
(Sergio)
Tel Rekhesh is located in the east part of the Lower Galilee,
near Kibbutz Gazit, which is southeast of Mount Tabor.
It's a magnificent mount that is 45 dunam of land
and rises 34 meters high.
This site remains an active excavation since 2006.
This is incredible. Wow!
And while there are still many mysteries that lie hidden beneath the surface
waiting to be unearthed,
we do know a few things from the past archaeological digs.
It appears to be a first-century Jewish farm,
where livestock was grown, olives were harvested,
and it was located on a main route,
which made it the perfect location for trade of local goods.
Some of the findings, such as the olive press,
date all the way back to the bronze age,
and it is believed that this place is the biblical village of Anaharath,
or in Hebrew, Anacharath.
Mentioned in Joshua 19,
it was a village that belonged to the tribe of Issachar.
Can you just imagine the ancient Israelites living here?
It's just mind-blowing.
I can just now imagine how blessed Issachar was with such a beautiful land.
Wow.
♪ (music) ♪
The most fascinating discovery in this place is the remains of an ancient synagogue.
And if this place had a synagogue,
then could have Jesus of Nazareth been here
as he preached in the synagogues in the Galilee region?
I really wonder if Jesus was ever here.
This place is only ten minutes from Nazareth
and only five miles from Nain,
where Jesus raised from the dead a son of a widow.
So it is very possible that Jesus himself stopped here,
in this very synagogue, as he was traveling to Galilee,
preaching the gospel, healing people, and fulfilling the ancient prophecies.
But no matter how interesting this excavation site is,
Yossi and I seem to have lost our track
and now must find our way back to the river.
I don't see the next sign. I have no idea whether we go left or right.
Due to the heavy rain season in the past winter,
this area has overgrown with bushes and thorns.
The bushes grew so tall that they hid the trail markings.
So, to find our way, we turned to the GPS
and the satellite maps on our phone for help.
I really try to avoid using digital maps or GPS,
but we're kind of lost.
Can't find the trail anymore and can't see it from the hill.
I think we're gonna go back onto the marked trail that we have on the map
and not rely on this signage.
♪ (dramatic music) ♪
(Yossi)
Something that looks like a path, but we can't find the next marking.
Where do we go?
Yossi, there is the mark!
- (Yossi)
-
- Wow! - How on Earth would you see that
- from anywhere? - Wow! We found it, finally.
The vegetation is so high,
the marking is so small--
little, faded, in between big bushes--
you can't see it from afar, but we found it.
Let's keep going.
♪ (Guesthouse, "Do it For You") ♪
♪ Everything I do, I do it my way ♪
♪ Everywhere I go... ♪
- (Yossi)
- Look at that! - Wow!
And I can hear the water down there.
♪ Nothin' to prove, I'm doin' my thing ♪
♪ Yeah, you can do it too, just make the change ♪
♪ Hey yeah, hey yeah, I like that ♪
♪ Hey yeah, hey yeah ♪
♪ If you wanna do it, you can do it, yeah ♪
♪ If you wanna do it ♪
- (Sergio)
- Whoa. - There's a crab!
- Yo! - (Yossi)
Wow!
- (Yossi)
(Sergio)
- Isn't it so nice to find the trail? - (Sergio)
We had finally made it to the trail of the ancient river,
but is it really the one?
Interestingly enough, if you look up the modern maps,
you will find that this river appears under the name Tabor Stream.
And if you look for the river Kishon, you'll find it lied to the west.
However, we found out that Tabor Stream was actually called Kishon
up until the 19th century.
And there's plenty of historical writings to show for that.
For example...
the third-century historian, Eusebius of Caesarea,
mentions that the river by Mount Tabor is actually the Biblical river Kishon.
Then, a geographer of the 14th century said that the Kishon River
empties into the Jordan River, just like the modern-day Tabor Stream
that we're walking today.
And to top off the evidence,
maps produced before the 19th century also identified this river as Kishon.
So, if this is the true River Kishon,
then it creates a problem,
because the Bible mentions that Kishon
is also where Elijah slaughtered the Baal prophets.
But Elijah was at Mount Carmel,
so it is more likely that he went down to this modern-day River Kishon.
Does this mean that the modern identification is correct?
Which river is it?
Is it the river by Mount Tabor or the one by Mount Carmel?
♪ (dramatic music) ♪
Some believe that this can be explained
by assuming that there used to be two rivers named Kishon.
Or another possible explanation is that these two rivers used to be connected.
So it is very likely that the Kishon River that Elijah went to
is today's Kishon,
while the one Deborah went to is today's Tabor Stream...
the one we're exploring today...
the stream that starts in Nazareth and ends in the Jordan River.
It just makes so much sense that we have Mount Tabor out there.
All the battles with Barak and Deborah happened so close here,
and it would make sense that it would be this river
that had been renamed into Nahal Tavor,
but it must have been that this river would have been the Kishon River.
(Sergio)
we have not seen enough water in it to match the biblical events.
But we heard that there is a waterfall, just down the trail,
that has heavy torrents during the winter rains.
As seeing it could help us understand
how Sisera's army could have been swept away in the water,
we decided to go and check it out.
- (Yossi)
But to get to the waterfall, we must first cross the river.
Can we cross here?
- (Yossi)
(water rushing)
It's kind of deep in there,
so just to avoid dangers of falling in and hurting ourselves,
I'm going around.
Due to the murky water, crossing the river could be dangerous,
as the bottom of the river might hold sharp and unstable rocks
that recently fell from the cliffs.
But, I can't even see a crossing here either.
(shouting) I don't know if I can find another crossing.
But since there's no other option,
we are forced to cross the murky stream.
Go, go, go!
(Yossi)
Whoa!
(Sergio)
I think we're getting very, very close to the waterfall.
Yeah, I can hear the stream louder and louder.
Wow!
Whoa-ho-ho!
- Isn't this cool? - Oh, it's beautiful!
Man!
Oh, that is incredible.
We have finally made it to the falls,
which, in the wintertime, are significantly more abundant in water,
and during heavy rains may even cause flooding.
Another visual picture of how Sisera's military
could have been swept away in the torrent of the river
as recorded in Judges, Chapter 5.
But before we leave, Yossi suggests we jump in the water to cool off.
And even though the water is murky and it's hard to see if it's safe,
Yossi has done it before
and knows that the pool is clear of rocks and is deep enough for a jump.
♪ (suspenseful music) ♪
(water rushing)
Have you jumped from this rock?
The smaller one at the bottom, yeah.
- Well, how far should I jump? - As far as you can.
- I'm a little nervous. - (chuckling)
Yeah. Three, two, one!
Whoo-hoo! (splash)
(water bubbling)
(both laughing)
Wow! The water's so cold!
Oh, that's wonderful. Let's do this again!
Let's do it! Let's do it!
♪ (upbeat music) ♪
(whooping)
(exclaiming) (splash)
(splashing)
- (Yossi)
but now I'm less scared.
(Yossi)
(waterfall splashing)
Wow.
- It's time for coffee. - Time for coffee.
- Let's go. - Let's go.
♪ (upbeat music) ♪
(Yossi)
(Sergio)
and imagine the biblical events that took at this very place.
(Yossi)
There was just so much of exciting history,
archaeological finds, and beautiful nature...
yet, the most memorable of all
was doing this journey together, as brothers.
Well, it's been awesome
I'm really glad we did this hike.
Me too.
(footsteps crunching)
(beep) Delete Scenes
The marking is so small, it's little, faded,
in between big bushes, you can't see it from afar,
but we found it, so let's keep going.
Oh, let's do a high five.
(blows raspberry)
(silly noises)
♪ (music) ♪
So, Rhoda packed us some snacks for the road,
and this is a Fa’oos.
It's like a cucumber, but it's not a cucumber.
It's more juicy, more watery, and it's really, really nice.
Fa’oos.
Hey, I've got some homemade olives. Do you want to try some?
What do you think?
- It's different. - Yeah?
I can see what you were trying to do here, trying to make you pack lighter.
It's good.
Wow, look at these! They're giant!
These are like just giant thorns.
Look at these giant thorns!
They're huge!
(Yossi)
"All roads lead to Rome" kind of thing?
(laughing) No wonder we're lost.
The climb back to the car.
♪ (music) ♪
(Sergio)
(breathing heavily)
(beeps and clicking)
(audio logo)