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25187
From: chatillon, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Texan red heifers
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What do Texan red heifers have to do with Al-Aqsa and a Jewish temple? Temple Movement’s plan to sacrifice the cattle seen as a step towards its goal of building the Third Temple over Al-Aqsa Mosque. This picture taken on April 27, 2023 shows red heifer cows imported from the US by the Boneh Israel ("Building Israel") organisation, feeding at a farm in Hamadya near the northern city of Beit Shean. With imported red cows, ancient hymns and growing support, some nationalist Jews hope to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem's Old City, at a site at the heart of Israeli-Palestinian tensions. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP) Red heifers imported from the US feed at a farm in Hamadia, Israel, near the northern city of Beit Shean in April 2023 [File: Jack Guez/AFP] By Mersiha Gadzo Published On 9 Apr 2024 9 Apr 2024 They have come from halfway across the world and are kept under tight security and raised according to the strictest rules. They are five pure red heifers without blemish who have never worked, given birth, been milked or worn a yoke. These red heifers and the archaic ritual they were brought to Israel for stand at the heart of a convoluted effort by a segment of ultranationalist Jews to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the third holiest site in Islam that has stood on a hill in the Old City of Jerusalem for more than 1,000 years, and replace it with a “Third Temple”. This minority ultranationalist push flies in the face of Jewish scholarship, which rules that a “Third Temple” can only be constructed after the coming of the awaited Messiah to usher in the “Kingdom of God” – not to bring about the return of the Messiah to Earth. Members of these “Temple Movement” groups are also pushing to perform Jewish rites in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, in violation of the chief rabbinate’s longstanding prohibition of the presence of Jews at Al- Aqsa due to the holiness of the site. Heifer prophecy According to the Old Testament, the two Jewish temples that stood where the Al-Aqsa compound stands today were ritually pure as were all instruments, garments and people who served in them. Red Heifer Jerusalem Al Aqsa Mosque interactive Al Jazeera The first temple stood from 1000 to 586 BCE and the second from 515 BCE to 70 AD and the third temple is what ultranationalist organisations have been working towards for decades. Palestinians have for decades feared Israeli attempts to take over Al-Aqsa, which is the direction Muslims used to pray towards before the Kaaba in Mecca. These fears have been particularly acute since 1967 when Israel illegally occupied East Jerusalem along with the West Bank and Gaza in the wake of the 1967 War. Sign up for Al Jazeera Weekly Newsletter The latest news from around the world. Timely. Accurate. Fair. E-mail address Subscribe By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy protected by reCAPTCHA The growing Jewish presence in Al-Aqsa and frequent attacks by Israeli security forces on Palestinian worshippers in recent years have only increased those fears. Advertisement According to the reasoning of ultranationalist Jewish organisations like the Temple Institute, a “Third Temple” cannot be built until Al-Aqsa is destroyed and the compound is purified, along with garments, utensils and hundreds of men of a particular lineage who have been trained for the priesthood who all stand ready to serve in this temple. The purification is through a mixture of ashes – of a sacrificed red heifer, red yarn, cedar wood and hyssop – with fresh spring water collected by ritually pure children who were born and raised under certain conditions. This ash mixture is believed to remain effective for up to 100 years and can be mixed with spring water as needed. Israeli police detain a Palestinian worshipper at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Wednesday, April 5, 2023. Palestinian media reported police attacked Palestinian worshippers, raising fears of wider tension as Islamic and Jewish holidays overlap. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean) Israeli police raid the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and harass worshippers during Ramadan, on April 5, 2023 [Mahmoud Illean/AP Photo] The search for these pure red heifers is not new and has been a main aim of the Temple Institute since its founding in 1987, with fundraising efforts to breed one through IVF and to search all over the world for one. Until 2022, when five red yearlings were donated by an evangelical farmer from Texas, United States, and flown to Israel as “pets” to get around restrictions on importing live animals as livestock at the time. There have also been efforts to secure and prepare a plot of land on the Mount of Olives, which overlooks the Al-Aqsa compound and would enable the priest overseeing the killing of the heifer to sprinkle her blood towards Al-Aqsa as detailed in the Bible. Sacrifice imminent? There are indications that the Temple Movement is preparing to sacrifice a red heifer with the support of the Israeli government, according to the Israeli NGO Ir Amim. The Israeli Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development circumvented protocols when initially seeking permission to import red heifers, Ir Amim noted in a report in August, an example of increasing government involvement as the US was not a country approved for the import of live animals from at the time. Advertisement Netanel Isaac, the director general of the Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage, delivered a speech in honour of the heifers’ arrival at Ben Gurion airport in September 2022 and admitted that the ministry has been funding the development of the Mount of Olives area where the ceremony is planned. This picture taken on April 27, 2023 shows members of the Boneh Israel ("Building Israel") organisation Moriel Bareli (L) and Haim Berkovits feeding red heifer cows imported by the organisation from the US, at a farm in Hamadya near the northern city of Beit Shean. With imported red cows, ancient hymns and growing support, some nationalist Jews hope to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem's Old City, at a site at the heart of Israeli-Palestinian tensions. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP) Members of Boneh Israel (Building Israel) feed red heifers [File: Jack Guez/AFP] The Ministry of Agriculture, the Temple Institute and evangelical Christian group Boneh Israel did not respond to Al Jazeera’s requests for comment before publication. In a video from January posted on Boneh Israel’s website, Michael Samuel Smith, a Christian preacher working to bring forth the temple prophecy, said the red heifers they have been raising in Shiloh have come of sacrificial age. “This is the first time in nearly 2,000 years a successful red heifer has come about,” Smith said in the video. “It is still our opinion the first successful red heifer sacrifice will take place in the spring of 2024 around the Passover to Pentecost timeframe. “We believe God is going to reveal himself through the efforts of this future event. It is truly a sign of the times, most especially for Jews in Israel.” Passover will be towards the end of April while Pentecost is in mid-May. Aviv Tatarsky, a senior Ir Amim researcher, told Al Jazeera that in Jewish religious texts, a lot of the details around sacrificing and burning a red heifer are ambiguous. Advertisement “What is this ceremonial burning? What exactly is a red heifer? This is not at all clear or known because the last time this was done, it was done when there was a Jewish temple 2,000 years ago,” Tatarsky explained. “[I]t’s not 100 percent clear. Until recently, there were some extreme and fringe people who were working on it, but very few people took it seriously,” he added. ‘Detestable religious myth’? Defending Al-Aqsa is an important mission for Palestinian Muslims, worshippers and armed fighters alike. In a speech marking 100 days of Israel’s war on Gaza which started after the “Al-Aqsa Flood” attack by Palestinian armed fighters from Gaza, Qassam Brigades spokesperson Abu Obeida said the red heifers are a concern, and the potential sacrifice is a “detestable religious myth designed for aggression against the feelings of an entire nation”. Tatarsky sees that the real “danger”, of the Temple Movement is that it has “worked against Muslim freedom of worship” and has consistently been “trying to create some kind of Jewish control” over Al-Aqsa, backed by the Israeli government. The Temple Movement says it plans to build the temple “within years”, according to Ir Amim. Still, Tatarsky said he does not believe the red heifer ceremony or the construction of the temple will happen “any time soon”. Advertisement He added that, despite state support for a Jewish presence in Al-Aqsa, he does not believe there is strong enough backing from the government for a group to try to destroy Al-Aqsa, which is subject to numerous agreements and regulations. As for the heifer sacrifice, “they need recognition of a very wide public and of decision-makers and all kinds of important rabbis. If they just do it [in April], it won’t be recognised, and all their effort will be for nothing. “I don’t underestimate the danger of these groups. … [but] building the temple means a completely different Israel from today.” |
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25188
From: mitra, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Texan red heifers
URL: https://jbqnew.jewishbible.org/assets/Uploads/432/jbq_432_newmanredheifer.pdf
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"What is this ceremonial burning? What exactly is a red heifer? This is not at all clear or known because the last time this was done, it was done when there was a Jewish temple 2,000 years ago,” Tatarsky explained. " UNDERSTANDING THE MYSTERY OF THE RED HEIFER RITUAL STEPHEN NEWMAN The ritual of the Red Heifer described in Numbers 19:1-22 is considered to be one of the most mysterious and incomprehensible rituals in the entire Bible and has troubled interpreters throughout the ages. 1 The main difficulties are (1) the special power of a red cow’s ashes to purify someone who came in contact with a dead body; and (2) the seeming paradox that while the ashes are able to purify, they defile anyone involved in their preparation, albeit on a low level. The Midrash reveals the wise King Solomon to have been incapable of solving the mystery of the Red Heifer (Kohelet Rabbah 8:5). In talmudic literature, the Red Heifer is viewed as the quintessential example of a hok, a rule that cannot be understood through logic and reason (TB Yoma 67b). However, this never prevented attempts to find some rationale for the ritual. Rashi, at the end of his commentary to Numbers 19:22, cites a midrashic reading from Rabbi Moshe ha-Darshan, which states that the Red Heifer ritual is an atonement for the worship of the Golden Calf. It is as if the mother cow seeks to expiate the sin committed through her offspring. This also explains why the Bible states that Aaron's son Eleazar was to perform this service, his father being unworthy of the task due to his involvement with the Golden Calf. The color red is associated in the Bible with sin (Isa. 1:18), so a red cow symbolized the ultimate sin of the Israelites, worshiping the Golden Calf. In order to grasp the significance of the Red Heifer, we must first understand the meaning behind the Golden Calf. Why did the Israelites choose that particular animal as an object of worship? According to Ezekiel 20:7, the enslaved Israelites defiled themselves with the idols of Egypt, a land where rites associated with bulls and cows were widespread. 2 Some scholars identify the Golden Calf with worship of the goddess Hathor, one of the leading Egyptian deities. 3 Hathor was worshipped throughout Egypt, had many functions, 4 and was depicted either as a beautiful woman with bovine ears and horns or as a red cow. 5 Hathor was sometimes referred to as "Nub the golden" or as "heifer with the golden neck". 6 Rabbi Moshe ha-Darshan explains that the rite of burning the Red Heifer was a reenactment of the destruction of the Golden Calf at the foot of Mount Sinai. Thus, it would also be a symbolic destruction of the cow-goddess Hathor which the Golden Calf represented. This explains why a red cow was needed for the ritual. The association with cleansing from impurity as a result of contact with a dead body is understood, in light of the midrash in TB Avodah Zarah 22b, to mean that the Israelites attained a state of immortality at Mount Sinai, but lost it due to the sin of the Golden Calf. Purification from death thus involves rejection of the Golden Calf, demonstrated by the ashes of the Red Heifer. This is especially powerful considering that Hathor was associated in Egypt with life and reproduction. 7 Seen in this light, the Red Heifer ritual is a total rejection of Egyptian idolatry and its symbols. The ritual includes burning a crimson thread (Num. 19:6), which may likewise be a negation of the magic scarlet ribbon worn by the cow-goddess that was thought capable of binding evil spirits. 8 This interpretation of the Red Heifer may enable us to fathom a seeming paradox: that while purifying the afflicted, contact with the ashes of the heifer defiled those who were themselves ritually clean (Num. 19:21). One explanation could be that since the Red Heifer represented Egyptian idolatry, the state of impurity resulted from contact with an idol. In the Bible we find Jacob instructing his family to cleanse themselves after discarding the idols they had with them (Gen. 35:2), and impurity due to contact with idols is mentioned in the Mishnah (Shabbat 9:1). The impurity contracted by dealing with the Red Heifer is therefore associated with the idolatry that it represented. By combining traditional rabbinic interpretation (particularly that of Rabbi Moshe ha- Darshan) with our knowledge of ancient Egypt, a new understanding of the Red Heifer ritual and its mysteries is possible. |
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