A group of religious Israelis has been photographed practicing the ritual of the red heifer, which is associated with the anticipated construction of a new Jewish temple on the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.The red heifer (Hebrew: parah adumah) is a cow that is entirely red in color, without any blemishes or markings, and has never been used for work.
In Jewish tradition, the ashes of a red heifer cow were used in purification rituals, particularly for those who had come into contact with death.
The ashes were used to cleanse a person from ritual impurity and were considered necessary for people to participate in certain religious activities, such as entering the Temple in Jerusalem.According to radical Jewish groups, the temple must be constructed on the raised plateau in Jerusalem’s Old City known as the Temple Mount, where Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine stand today. While some believe that this will herald the arrival of the messiah and possibly even the end of the world,.
Journalist Yinon Magal posted on Tuesday, “Temple worshipers are now practicing the mitzvah [religious duty] of a red cow in front of the Temple Mount, which will enable the return of purity and the observance of all the temple mitzvahs.”
Five “red angus” heifers were finally imported from Texas through evangelical Christians in 2022. Since then, they have been growing under close surveillance in the settlement of Shiloh, a significant site in Judaism before the creation of the first temple. The Temple Institute imported the heifers for the eventual purpose of using them in a ritual after years of searching for blemish-free cows without stray white or black hair.
However, research by a professor at Bar Ilan University estimated that the ashes of one cow could be made into enough cleansing water for 660 billion purifications.
However, the cow being practiced upon in Magal’s image does not appear to be one of the five red heifers from Shilo; rather, it seems to be an edited image.
The traditional site of the ritual, the Mount of Olives, is seen in the background on the other side of Al-Aqsa Mosque, suggesting the practice run was performed within the Old City.
