In the middle of Israel’s Arava Desert, a farming community is bringing trees back to life that’s bearing fruit from the time of the Bible. A little, young-looking palm tree named Judith was planted on Kibbutz Ketura recently. And though she’s just nine-years-old, she carries an ancient heritage.
Gaza strife won t slow Arava Institute s ecological agenda | Larry Luxner timesofisrael.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from timesofisrael.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
KIBBUTZ KETURA, Israel At a remote desert outpost in Israel’s Arava Valley far from the Hamas missiles and mob violence that shook this country last month Jews and Arabs are quietly working together to tackle the region’s most pressing water, energy and ecological issues.
argaman or
tekhelet in Hebrew, is a particularly vibrant hue mentioned only a few times in the Bible, when describing drapings for kings, a carriage for King Solomon, the tabernacle in Exodus, and for coloring tzitzit, the fringed garment still worn by many observant Jews.
But while purple was clearly a holy color, we didn’t really know what it looked like until now. In the Timna Valley in Israel, scholars have discovered a scrap of purple-dyed fabric from 1000 B.C.E, the era of Solomon and David, Israelite kings who were adorned in the color; their findings were published in the journal PLOS ONE.