Plot of land on Mount of Olives has been purchased and is ready for a valid sacrifice – the first since the destruction of the Second Temple
The sacrifice of a red heifer could take place on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem as early as 13 months from now.Texas businessman Byron Stinson – the man instrumental in locating and helping get five red heifers from the United States to Israel – told ALL ISRAEL NEWS that finding the sacrifice-ready cows was not the only objective. Boneh Israel, the organization Stinson is involved with, has also purchased land on the Mount of Olives that meets the requirements for a biblical sacrifice outside of a temple
Stinson explained that a sacrifice does not necessitate a new temple. It can also be conducted at a certain height and direction – and the plot on the Mount of Olives meets these requirements.
“This is a big step – this is a huge sign. If we’re able to do the ceremony in a year and a half, to two years,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that the temple is going to be built within one year, 10 years or 40 years, 100 years… because you have the ashes. Solomon had the ashes of the red heifer and then lasted 1000 years.”
“The red heifer does not mean you have to immediately build. However, I think it’s like a key that turns on the engine,” he added.
The five red heifers landed in Israel about two weeks ago to much fanfare, celebration, end-times speculation and a health dose of cynicism as well. The cows have all been determined by certain rabbis to be ritually pure for sacrifice – for now. They must stay unblemished and red in order to be sacrificed when they are older than 2 years.
Currently, the calves are all just under one year and are about to be released from a 10-day quarantine after arriving from Texas on Sept. 15.
The search for such a heifer has been going on and, in recent times, only a few have come close to meeting the requirements. These particular cows are the closest documented in recent history so far that meet the requirements.
The ashes of a red heifer are needed in order to purify the priests who would serve in the temple, according to Numbers 19. Because the entire animal is burned and the ashes stored and used sparingly – sprinkled into water from the Gihon spring – only nine such sacrifices had been performed throughout history.
About this time next year would be the earliest time that one of them – the tenth in history – could be sacrificed. But, Stinson explained, this also leaves plenty of time for any of the five to grow non-red hairs or develop any sort of blemish that would render them imperfect for the sacrifice.
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