The mysteries of Amud Stream, Amud Stream from another angle,

By Shefi Gabai, Davar Newspaper

We were told that it is beautiful to hike in Amud Stream and its tributaries during the autumn season, when its spring-rich channel is a true jungle of fruit trees and tangled wild trees at the peak of their bloom. I made my way through the stream bed under the guidance of Yonatan Erez, a member of the Society for the Protection of Nature’s field school at the foot of Mount Meron. Indeed, various development projects mar the stream’s special beauty here and there, but the aura of magic still crowns the stream and it remains a most sought-after hiking destination. Amud Stream stretches from the mountains of Safed to the Tabgha valley on the shores of the Sea of Galilee; the stream was declared a protected nature reserve in 1968, for the enjoyment of lovers of hidden landscapes.

Where are the leopards and eagles that were in Amud Stream?

The upper tributaries of Amud Stream—the Valley of the Mills (in Arabic: Wadi Tawahin) and the Valley of the Lemons (in Arabic: Wadi Lemon)—are the most beautiful sections of the stream. At the entrance, we were greeted from the heights of the ravines by representatives of the most common population in the stream: the rock hyraxes. Once we did not know how to distinguish between a hyrax and a rabbit, so it was strange for us to see these furry animals without long ears; our companion explains that these little hyraxes are biological relatives of the largest animals in nature, the elephants, and they have no family relationship with rabbits. The guide further remarked that we are mistaken if we imagine the hyraxes sent special representatives to greet us; these representatives are the males of the group, and their role is to monitor whether the one entering their gates is dangerous or not. If it is an enemy, they let out a warning cry, and immediately the hyraxes scattered across the area start a quick run to their shelters in the rock burrows. Recently, the hyraxes were declared protected wildlife and the hyrax population in the stream has increased. Before that, the hyraxes were a “royal feast” for the area’s hunters.
In the stream’s skies, Short-toed Snake Eagles soared, living snake predators, fixing their sharp gazes from time to time on the jungle canopy. To the delight of bird of prey enthusiasts, the number of Short-toed Eagles in the Galilee has not decreased compared to other birds of prey, thanks to their great fondness for live snakes; they suddenly fall upon them and strangle them. The vultures that once nested high in the tall cliffs of the stream’s lower channel have dwindled due to the poisoning of grain fields in the Galilee mountains and valleys. To the vultures’ misfortune, nature cast upon them the role of “sanitizers.” They discover every carcass in the vicinity and within a few hours consume it, leaving no trace. Even though this pleasure causes them sudden weight gain that prevents them from taking off for a while. Many vultures ate the carcasses of mice that were poisoned in the fields, and they too fell as casualties within their nests. The Arabs also caused the decline of the population of the king of birds in Amud Stream, because of the legend prevalent among them that vultures kidnap children.  

An European naturalist who wandered about a hundred years ago in Amud Stream said that deer, otters, and even dwarves walked there then. Today there are no deer, no leopards in Amud Stream, and no otters; they tell of several families who hiked in the stream and ran in panic from the stream, telling the police with great excitement that they encountered several leopard cubs. Our guide says that it is possible that the same family saw a group of large hyraxes that look from a distance like leopard cubs. However, it is known that a few years ago a large cheetah was found in Amud Stream. The shepherd of the village of Akbara, situated on the slopes of the stream, noticed that every day he was missing one head of sheep in the flock; the village elders, who saw leopards in Amud Stream in their youth, ruled that this was the work of a leopard. One day they lay in wait for the leopard, and it indeed appeared: black, cursed, swift, and nervous; they shot it and killed it. The cheetah’s skin decorates to this day one of the halls at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Even today, the shepherd of the Arab village of Akbara (or Akbara) swears by all the oaths in the Quran that he occasionally spots leopards in the jungle of plants covering the Amud Stream bed and its banks. The ancient stone building was once a flour mill powered by the spring currents near the stream. Those who hike in Amud Stream will testify that at night they heard the multi-voiced symphony emerging from the burrows and the thick vegetation of the stream.

Ein al-Jin (The Demon’s Spring) – What is the connection with Ya-Jini, Ya-Jini?

At the approaches to the stream, I looked for Ein al-Jin (The Demon’s Spring), but to my disappointment, it was enclosed within a concrete building, and a giant pump sucks its water and flows it into a pipe that climbs up to Safed. I remembered a trip I took in Amud Stream in the early fifties with some Druze friends; we stood near Ein al-Jin, which is a large crevice in the rock. The crevice was completely dry, and my Druze friends apparently decided to pull my leg; they told me in all seriousness: this is a massive spring, but inside there is an Ifrit (demon) who harasses all the thirsty hikers coming to the stream and dries up the spring. If we plead before this demon, he will open the gates of the spring and quench our thirst. The Druze looked at the crevice and began their pleas: “Ya-Jini – Ya-Jini, we are dying of thirst and only your holiness can save us.” Suddenly the floodgates of the crevice opened, and a massive stream of water poured out of it. After two minutes, the spring dried up again.
To this day, there is no clear scientific explanation for this strange natural phenomenon. It is believed that the spring is built deep in the rock in the shape of a “siphon,” and therefore it gives its water in a powerful flow and at intervals. This is the only spring of its kind in the country, and those who knew it are sorry that they locked it behind a bolt and key. Its flow strength is 300 cubic meters of water per hour. Not far from it is the large spring Ein Tina, in Hebrew Ein Yakim, named after a Jerusalemite priestly family that came to settle in Safed after the destruction of the Second Temple. Its clear and sweet waters were also imprisoned in pipes. But in the stream bed, the waters of small springs still flow, feeding the thick vegetation; some of them create large pools of water where small fish, frogs, and salamanders grow.
Before the large springs were imprisoned, their waters flowed in a rushing torrent over the stream bed. For this reason, the Spanish exiles who settled in Safed established flour mills that the large water flow powered. To this day, some of these mills remain almost intact, and the Society for the Protection of Nature and the Nature Reserves Authority intend to restore one of them and show its operation to the many hikers who will walk in the stream. These mills were once bustling with the movement of donkeys heavily laden with sacks of barley and wheat, coming from all the villages of the Galilee. On the banks of the channel, there still exist remains of the fabric industry factory established by the Spanish exiles. The textile industry was the profession they acquired from our ancestors in their country of origin; therefore, they established near the water sources the primitive factories they called “Mabtasha,” fulling mills for beating the wool. The fabrics from Amud Stream were of very high quality and gained a reputation throughout the Middle East and also in Mediterranean cities in Europe.

The Squill heralds the autumn

The jungle vegetation of Amud Stream is a combination of cultivated leaves and wild trees; in this season, hikers in the stream enjoy various fruits: lemons, grapes, apples, pears, figs, walnuts, and almonds growing on tall, wide-branched, and aged trees. Among the fruit trees, giant Plane trees (called “Armon” in the Bible because of their peeling bark) grow wild to a great height, unique of their kind in the country: wild plants bearing black, mealy, and round fruits. Willow trees (the biblical “willows of the brook” from the four species blessed upon during Sukkot) and more. On the banks of the channel grow shrubs, ferns, Maidenhair ferns, known to us from the Ein Gedi springs, and the millet from which the Arabs make brooms. Spanish Broom from the legume family with its yellow butterfly-like flowers, the climbing Ivy, and the wild Blackberry which now gives its black, tasty, and juicy fruit. Now the Squill flowers, which herald the autumn, decorate the banks of the stream. In this channel, kosher Citrons and Myrtles also grow, remaining from the glory days of Safed. Arabs from the area wandered in the stream to locate the place of the Myrtles; they sell them to the residents of Safed towards the Sukkot holiday.

Napoleon hiked in Amud Stream

The length of Amud Stream is approximately 15 km. Its name comes from the many rock pillars (Amudim) rising in various places on its rocky banks, and especially because of the large pillar in its lower channel. A Safed legend from the period of the Kabbalistic sages tells that in the vicinity of the Kahal spring, near the pillar, the Jews hid vessels from the Temple after the destruction. One of the documents related to this matter states: “And these are the weights of the silver hidden in Ein Kahal by Baruch and Zedekiah – 1,200,000 talents of silver, and 1,600,000 of good silver, two million talents of good copper vessels. And 1,100,000 of iron, and tables of gold…” At the beginning of the nineteenth century  They told of Ein Kahal: “And there towards the east is a very steep and high mountain, and above at its top, a little is carved into the thickness of the mountain in the shape of a closed gate, and they say that in this mountain the vessels of the Temple were hidden.” Thus they told: “The King of France, Napoleon, it has been about fifty years since he was in the Land of Israel, and he also knew through the books of chronicles that there in Mount Ein Kahal are the hidden vessels, and he dug the mountain almost to its half, but his toil was in vain and his labor was for naught, for he did not know that they could not be revealed to him nor to another until the Messiah son of David, our righteous Messiah, comes speedily in our days, Amen.” A Jew who passed by Ein Kahal in 1888 on his way to Safed relates: “The flocks of the travelers would be watered from it; there is seen the excavation of half the mountain which Napoleon Bonaparte dug in the imagination of finding the Temple vessels hidden there, as known according to the Kabbalah… but he dug and toiled and found nothing.”
But not far from this place, a Japanese archaeological mission discovered an archaeological treasure that helps in understanding the prehistory of the Galilee: in a giant cave in the stream’s cliff, a complete skeleton of the prehistoric Land of Israel man from many thousands of years ago was discovered, which today arouses great interest in the world.