Conference taveng::bagels

It's very exciting news indeed. I read it the Globe aritcle too. What did you 
think of the article itself?

Leslie

    I had read from Temple Institute sources that several were found in
    Canada years ago and were bought and imported back to Israel then.  Is
    this really new news?

Re: .1
As I read the article, I thought someone ought to shoot the animal before
it's too late. Then further into the article it mentioned that a bullet in
the brain was a popular position. Its existance provides a motive for someone
to blow up the mosques on the Temple Mount to make room for a new Temple.

Re: .2
This one has been inspected by "rabbis" and accepted as a genuine
red heifer. The article was not at all clear which rabbis are involved,
nor did it mention the Canadian animals (that's news to me).

Dave

    This one may be the first offspring from the red heifers imported from
    Canada a couple years ago.  I'll see what I can find out.

>    This one may be the first offspring from the red heifers imported from
>    Canada a couple years ago.  I'll see what I can find out.

     Not according to the an internet article I saw, nor the Boston Globe
     article. Both of these made it sound like this heifer was born from
     non-importated Israeli animals, and that there was no human intervention
     to produce a red cow in this particular case.

     The article certainly made clear what a tinder-keg this animal could be. 
     Would it not be ironic though, if God had caused this particular
     animal to be born for the purpose of making ready for the third temple,
     and humanity, for fear for what would happen, got rid of it? I really
     hope no extremist or extremist group tries to take things into their own
     hands though, and blows up the mosques on the Temple Mount!!!! I hope
     that security around that area has been increased. I think at this point,
     executing the heifer might also set off violence on the opposite side.

     Leslie

Re: .5

The Globe said one parent was black-and-white, the other brown.

Dave

p.s. The ritual of the red heifer is found in Numbers (don't have the
exact chapter/verse). It was a special portion read just 2 weeks ago.
It is supposed to be the most incomprehensible portion of the Torah.
The red heifer is to be sacrificed when it is 3 years old and reduced
to ashes. A person who is "clean" must carry the ashes outside the city
and mix them with water. Annointing with the water/ashes mixture makes
an "unclean" person "clean". But the person who carried the ashes becomes
"unclean" for a day and no one can explain why.

    Re: -2
    
    Dave, are there any attempts to explain these mysteries?  Any possible
    Messianic applications?
    
    thanks,
    Mike

Re: .8

I understand there have been many attempts to draw lessons from
this portion, but none are accepted as correct. One story has it
that when Moses got to the top of Mt. Sinai he discovered G-d
puzzling over this portion. When rabbis write about this portion
it is almost standard practice to apologize "but this is parasha aduma
[the chapter of the red (heifer)] and I could be wrong".

There are definitely messianic connections. It was already mentioned that
the Messiah is supposed to discover the 10th red heifer. The Messiah is
also supposed to be able to explain this portion. Lacking the ashes of
the red heifer, Judaism has no way for a person to be cleansed of sin.
We can achieve forgiveness through repentance, prayer, and good deeds,
but not cleansing. I am not enough of an amature theologian to expand on
the implications.

This Torah portion is considered important enough to be read twice during
the yearly cycle; once last month (out of sequence), and again this spring
(summer?) as we work our way through Numbers.

Dave

    Was this also done on Yom Kippur or is it a separate event?  If
    separate, I thought Yom Kippur providing cleansing (atonement) of sin?

An Orthodox Jew would not enter the Temple Mount, even on the day
of Yom Kippur, because he is not ritually pure. There is something
the ashes of the red heifer provides that is not available today -
a "ritual cleansing" that is not the same as atonement.

Dave

My understanding (from a layman's point of view) of the Numbers passage
is that the heifer provided cleansing after one had come into contact with a
dead body. I did't really understand it as a cleansing for sin, but maybe
I missed something. There are several newletters and internet sites that
provide the traditional rabbinic commentary on the weekly Torah portion. I
get one of them, but I do not keep all the issues. I looked back through
the ones I've kept, and didn't see this one among them. Sorry.

Leslie