Ziad Ibhais Warns Temple Institute’s Red Heifer Birth in Galilee Expands Aqsa Visits

Temple groups announced the birth of a new red heifer in the Galilee, and Al-Quds affairs researcher Ziad Ibhais warned the Temple Institute’s announcement represents a significant development in efforts to expand Jewish visits and activities at the Aqsa Mosque compound.

“ABNA24 - Al-Quds affairs researcher Ziad Ibhais has warned that the Temple Institute’s announcement of the birth of a new red heifer in the Galilee represents a significant development in the efforts of Temple groups to create the religious and ideological conditions they believe are necessary to expand Jewish visits and activities at the Aqsa Mosque compound”

ABNA English

Ibhais said the Temple Institute presented the event as having exceptional religious significance and linked the birth to the ongoing conflict in northern Israel, portraying it as a possible “divine sign” connected to biblical beliefs surrounding the red heifer.

ABNA English

He added that the newly born calf differs from the five red heifers imported from Texas in 2022 because it was born in historic Palestine, thereby overcoming one of the main rabbinical objections previously raised against imported animals.

Charisma Magazine Online reported that the Temple Institute shared a report naming the calf Tamima and stating, “A Red Heifer Is Born in the Galilee,” after a dairy cow was inseminated with a Red Angus breed.

The Charisma report said Rabbi Azaria Ariel examined the calf and “found that she was pure in her redness,” while noting healing of a minor ear deformity caused by an identification tag placed shortly after birth.

Al-Jazeera Net said the Temple Institute announced the birth at a dairy cattle farm in the Galilee, northern Israel, and connected it to the war in the north, describing it as a “divine sign” since the red heifer must be a “divine miracle” without human intervention in determining its color.

Abdullah Maroof, director of the Jerusalem Studies Center at Istanbul University, argued that the cow’s birth under war in the north is treated as a divine sign, and he linked the Temple Institute’s framing to the Torah legend about determining the animal’s color.

Al-Jazeera Net

The same Al-Jazeera Net report said a Jerusalem affairs specialist on X noted the cow is viewed differently from the five cows previously imported from Texas because it was born in occupied Palestine, which it said bypasses a rabbinic objection tied to the “Land of Israel.”

It further stated that purification from the “impurity of the dead” is achieved by the ash of a red cow mixed with water with which Jews bathe, and it described the belief that the sign would allow Jews to ascend to the Temple Mount, enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and then pull it down to build the “Third Temple.”

Al-Jazeera Net also said Temple organizations view finding a local red cow as the essential prerequisite to doubling the number of intruders into the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, framing purification as a basic condition for invading the mosque.

ABNA English | West Asian said the Temple Institute has maintained a dedicated red heifer program since 1986 and has on several occasions announced the discovery of candidate animals that ultimately failed to meet strict biblical requirements by the time they reached the age considered suitable for the ritual.

“A newly born red heifer in northern Israel is drawing global attention from researchers who study the biblical commandment outlined in Numbers 19 and from those watching developments surrounding the future of the Temple”

Charisma Magazine Online

It described traditional criteria requiring the animal to be completely red, free of blemishes or injuries, and never used for agricultural work, and it said the farmer who owns the calf pierced its ear to attach a standard identification tag that may affect eligibility under some religious interpretations.

ABNA English | West Asian added that the Temple Institute said the tag was removed shortly afterward and that specialists are monitoring the healing process to determine whether any lasting mark remains.

Israel365 News | Israeli reported that Shai Givon, a specialist in artificial insemination at Piryon, discovered the calf and that he told Yehuda Ben Tzvi, “and the fact that it came out red is astonishing.”

Israel365 News | Israeli said Ben Tzvi described the calf’s ear tag as a complication at the heart of why producing a qualified red heifer is difficult, and it quoted him saying, “She really did turn out to be red in all her hairs.”