ROSH HASHANAH EDITION
SECTION D PAGE 5
JERUSALEM The Temple Institute is working together with an Israeli cattleman to raise a Red Heifer in Israel, in strict accordance with the Biblical commandment. The project is the culmination of years of research at the Temple Institute that fuses ancient religious texts and modern science.
Weve been working on this for decades. The Red Heifer has to be supervised and cared for in a special way since its birth. And its very complex, Rabbi Chaim Richman, says the international director of the institute.
Over 2,000 years ago, during the near millennium that the two Temples stood in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount, the ashes of the Red Heifer were used by the priests for purification purposes.
To carry out this project, the institute has joined forces with an Israeli cattle rancher who is an expert in animal husbandry.
The cattle rancher is utilizing the technique of implanting the frozen embryos of the Red Angus cattle, which originally come from North America, in Israeli domestic cattle.
We can select proper candidates from those calves that are born. They will be cared for under specific instructions, explains Richman.
The end result of this program will be the introduction of the Red Angus breed into Israel, which will improve the quality of cattle in Israel.
This method, authorized and approved by Israels Ministry of Agriculture, has already proven successful with the birth of a number of male Red Angus.
The Temple Institute is a research and education center founded in 1987 by Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, who served in the paratrooper brigade that liberated the Temple Mount during the Six Day War in 1967.
RAISING A perfect Red Heifer in accordance with the Biblical commandment requires advance planning, preparation and constant supervision, according to Rabbi Richman. For a Red Heifer to be considered kosher for Biblical use, it must be raised from birth under specific conditions, which has never been attempted in Israel during modern times.
Three decades of research and preparation have led us to this special day, said Richman. Speaking during the period known as the Three Weeks, as world Jewry mourned the destruction of the Second Holy Temple, the institute, he said, has taken a bold move toward the third.
Having already prepared over 70 sacred vessels, including the golden menorah and high priests gemstone-encrusted breastplate, now is the time to fulfill the commandment of the Red Heifer.
To raise funds and awareness, the institute has launched a crowd funding campaign called Raise a Red Heifer in Israel on Indiegogo. Within a day, nearly $11,000 was raised.
The institute aims to raise $125,000 for the Red Heifer project. To date it has raised about $35,000 that will go toward embryo implantation, veterinary care and feed, identification and separate care of candidates for the perfect Red Heifer, as well as publication of halachic research and findings.
The introduction of suitable Red Heifers to Israel is the first project of a multi-level program that will span a number of years.
According to Jewish tradition, a Red Heifer is a female cow that is three years of age with a particular reddish hue that may not have even two hairs of any other color.
It cannot be used for any type of labor and must be blemish free.
The Biblical commandment regarding the Red Heifer is found in the Book of Numbers and considered the only antidote to the state of impurity brought on by contact with the dead.
The emergence of the Red Heifer is not some mystical miracle, Richman believes. It is a practical development alongside Torah knowledge and science.
