TEMPESTADE NO DESERTO EM ISRAEL!

Shalom and welcome back to ‘Israel with Aline!’ Today we are in a very blessed day, why? Because we are witnessing rain in the wilderness! We are now in the Judean desert and we have come here today to show you one of the most amazing and dangerous phenomena in this place; we are going to see rivers being born again in the middle of the desert! So, if you’re ready, let’s get started! Here three thousand years ago the people of Israel lived, and specifically this area was part of the territory of the tribe of Judah and is mentioned in the Bible: “The descendants of Moses’ father-in-law, the Kenite, went up from the City of Palms “with the people of Judah to live among the inhabitants of the Desert of Judah in the Negev near Arad.” Judges 1:16 And we know these cities to this day, Arad is not far from here and the city of palm trees which is Jericho is also here in the Judean desert. But even though the Judean desert is part of the promised land, is extremely difficult territory to live in! Temperatures here easily pass 104 degrees in the summer and it rains less than 100 mm per year. But now to explore this amazing region we will travel through it by jeep. ♪ In this desert are many biblical and historical sites such as Jericho, the oldest city in the world that still exists, Massada which is a palace inside a fortress on top of a mountain in the middle of the desert built two thousand years ago by King Herod and also Qumran, the lost city of the Essenes and in it were found the famous Dead Sea scrolls, the oldest version of the Bible ever found and the Oasis of Ein Gedi, which is a spring of pure fresh water in the middle of the desert and which is also known for being one of the places where King David hid when he was fleeing from King Saul. And many, many other places there are here. Some of them we have already made videos here on the channel, but today we will see a phenomenon that very few people have the privilege to witness, which are the desert storms. ♪ And how do they happen? Here a few days a year it rains in the region, but the soil cannot absorb the water and so the water starts to run over the land forming small streams and these streams go on joining, joining and growing more and more and so rivers and even waterfalls are born here in the desert! And today we are going to see one of these flash floods here in the desert and also show what is its connection to some passages in the Bible. But for now, folks, to get there we’ll keep traveling through the Desert. ♪ Guys I’m leaving the boys here in the jeeps and I’m driving away into the desert because I want to show you something fantastic! When we are here in the desert and we remember that we are in the Judean desert, and that the tribe of Judah lived here over three thousand years ago, how did they live here in the middle of the desert? What water did they drink? And now you already know that there are storms here in the desert a few days a year water flows here and we are seeing it, can you see this little stream here folks? Now this little creek here will stay for a few hours, but how are they going to drink water the whole year round from this little creek? What did they do? They took water from the streams and diverted it into cisterns and here is one of them, and we can see the amount of water that is running in here! This cistern today belongs to Bedouins, who are nomads living here in the desert but they use many of the same techniques that have been used here since biblical times. And folks, I don’t know if you can see that now it’s raining, it’s raining in the middle of the desert! Today is really a very special day to be here and very blessed but come on, we still have a lot to show you. Let me take care of the mud. ♪ And I want to invite you to participate in one of the Caravans Israel with Aline, we have just opened new dates and you can see all the information and prices on our website: www.israelcomaline.com.br but for now let’s continue on our adventure! And now we are finally here folks, I am here with Shlomi, Shlomi Lobaton is back, [Shlomi] Hi folks, thank you, love you! Say shalom to him, but let’s go? Let’s go together? [Shlomi] Come on, let’s go. So guys let’s get out of the jeep now because for this adventure we have to be really on foot and you have no idea what is already happening here! [Shlomi] Come on Aline look, look guys at the river! A river in the desert! Look how beautiful, look how amazing! Living Water, wow! [Stream of water] We are seeing an incredible phenomenon; above me here is the Sun as you can see the Sun has just appeared, the sky is blue and at the same time behind me there is a gigantic storm coming. This phenomenon is called in Hebrew Shitafon which are floods, flash floods. What happens is that in the region of the mountains, for example the Jerusalem mountains, or the Arad region, it rains and this rain gathers and creates rivers with waterfalls, and we will still see the waterfalls today and they will end up in the Dead Sea. And this phenomenon can be beautiful, but also very dangerous, why? Imagine one day you are here in the desert, the sky is blue, the day is beautiful, people are walking around and suddenly, without seeing or hearing anything, a river starts out of nowhere! And the river can carry away anyone who is walking into the riverbed. Here the riverbed is narrow, but there are points where the riverbed can be more than 300 feet long! And so, unfortunately, people who are not aware of the region end up falling into these traps, and sometimes even people who are from here and should know about it end up having accidents. We had a great tragedy that happened here in the region in 2018 in the Tzafit River when a high school was going on a trip here in the region and 10 children were swept away and died in one of these storms, 10 dead and more than 35 injured. So really this is one of those tragedies that happened here, and almost every year lives are lost. So guys, when you come to visit Israel and also other places in the world, always pay attention to the local news, so that you don’t take any risks. But is this phenomenon new? No, this phenomenon exists since biblical times! We can see this also from the passage in the second book of Kings when three kings were here in the region; the King of Judah, the King of Israel and the King of Edom they came together to fight against the King of Moab, take a look at the map guys.Then the three kings come to the desert and they are here, the soldiers together with the kings and their animals for seven days in the desert, without water and they really start to get desperate because water is life and it is written the following in the Bible: So the king of Israel set out with the king of Judah and the king of Edom. After a roundabout march of seven days the army had no more water for themselves or for the animals with them. “What!” exclaimed the king of Israel. “Has the LORD called us three kings together only to deliver us into the hands of Moab?” 2 Kings 3:10 And then the kings wonder what to do and they go to Elisha the prophet and he speaks the following: “And he said, “This is what the LORD says: I will fill this valley with pools of water. and he said, “This is what the LORD says: I will fill this valley with pools of water. and you, your cattle and your other animals will drink. This is an easy thing in the eyes of the LORD; he will also deliver Moab into your hands.” 2 Kings 3:16-18 He talks about a lot of water that is going to come to the region, enough water for all the soldiers and their animals and they won’t see or hear it coming Elisha tells them that the water is going to come through a shitafon and these shitfonot exist here to this day and now we are going to take advantage that we brought our drone, put it up and follow the river and see where it goes. We look like little dots from above, but now we will follow the river. ♪ I’m scared to death of hitting the drone on one of these rocks, knocking it over, and getting carried away by the river. ♪ But look what an incredible view we have from here, and here we already see the waterfalls! See the power of this phenomenon that is beautiful and frightening for the water in the desert is capable of bringing life but also destruction. It’s impressive to see the strength of the water, it must be hard to hear with all the water noise there is here, I want to touch it but, guys, we don’t take any risks here in the channel, so I’m not going to get to this part because there’s a risk of touching it and being carried, but we can see here on the other side a small stream that joins the main river, and here we can touch it, the water is cold, we are literally touching the desert water! And this is the source of life of the present times and also of the biblical times. And you can see that the waters of the river are intensifying more and more and to think that just a few hours ago this place was completely dry! But the images that I am going to show you now are the most shocking images of the day! And we are seeing the exact moment that the river in the desert is coming back to life, see the sky is completely blue, we can’t see or hear the storm but the water is coming here just like the prophet Elisha tells the Kings and now we can see why this phenomenon is so dangerous! [Streams of water] Because sometimes people are walking, traveling, within the riverbed or sometimes they don’t even know that it is a riverbed and the river can pass by and drag them and also the second reason is that there are many times irresponsible people who stay nearby without understanding the strength of this phenomenon. I hope you enjoyed our somewhat different day here in the water storm in the Judean desert, and I want to thank Shlomi Lobaton for bringing us here, thank you so much! [Shlomi] Thank you very much, thank you guys. And as we say in Hebrew “Todah Rabah” and if you want to, everybody, follow Shlomi Lobaton’s social networks, his Instagram, his website, it’s all here on the screen so you can follow a lot of different things about Israel on his channels. [Shlomi] Let’s see a different Israel, in nature! So nature in Israel with Shlomi, thank you all for watching and see you next time! [Shlomi] Thank you!