'The First Time After 2000 Years': Israel's Biblical Red Heifers Attract World Attention

SHILOH, Israel – In September 2022, the arrival of five red heifers in Israel caught the world's attention. Now, more than two years later, those cows are being cared for in ancient Shiloh and continue to attract international visitors.

Moriah Shapira is the manager of the visitor center at ancient Shiloh. She told us why the red heifers are so important.

"Here in Shiloh for the first time after 2000 years, we have real kosher red heifers, which is really exciting," she explained.

She added, "In the Bible it says when a person wants to enter the Temple, which is called the House of Life, he has to go through a process using ashes of the red heifer, meaning that the red heifers are actually the key to the Temple."

Shapira described the process is for purification to cleanse someone from death.

So, a person that got in contact with death, either in a funeral, or in a hospital, and he wants to enter the Temple which is called the House of Life, full of the Presence of God, has to go through this process. And the process is – the priest used to take the ashes of the red heifer, mix it with water that comes from a spring – life water – he's actually taking the source of death, mixing it with source of life, and these together become the purifying water," Shapira explained.

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Jewish tradition maintains that the red heifer ashes are needed to rebuild the Third Temple. Some Christians believe a Third Temple would pave the way for the end times.

Even Hamas reportedly blamed the red heifers in part for their invasion on October 7th, 2023, because of their belief that Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque would be in danger if the heifers were used to build the Third Temple.

The animals are also mentioned in the Book of Numbers, Chapter 19:

Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, "This is the statute of the law which the Lord has commanded, saying 'Speak to the sons of Israel that they bring you an unblemished red heifer in which there is no defect and on which a yoke has never been mounted. And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be brought outside the camp and be slaughtered in his presence.'"
 
For a heifer to be selected these qualifications must be met:  
.  Be an adult cow with reddish-brown hair
.  No hairs of a different color 
.  No blemishes
.  Never used for any other purpose

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We were able to see the Heifers on our visit to Shiloh. Two have already been disqualified, but only one is needed to qualify for the purification for the Temple.

Larry Borntrager, a farmer from northern Indiana, takes care of them.

He told us, "My next point is to try to find a farmer who can make hay, which is, you know, the flowers and the leaves and everything stay on them. That way it's just better for the cow."

Borntrager admitted, "It's just a lot of fun to be involved in something that I see God is doing behind the scenes."

He says what he's experienced since arriving here is remarkable.

"While I've been standing here at Shiloh, every continent, countries I've never heard of before, were here to see the red heifers. There's something happening in Shiloh," he observed.

Borntrager also believes it's biblically significant.

"Ideas are becoming a reality. In other words, the idea of a red heifer has been in the Jewish understanding over a couple thousand years. But here at Shiloh, just like it says in Genesis 49, there's something happening here that's drawing the nations, and it's the red heifers. 

In this area, Hannah prayed for a son where the prophet Samuel served the Lord and Joshua divided the land between the twelve tribes.

Moria Shapira identified it as "the place where many stories of the bible occurred. And today we also have here the red heifers, which is something new," she said. "The budgets for this visitor center stopped because of the war (with Hamas and Hezbollah). So we invite whoever wants to be part with us to help this very important thing of the red heifers."

During our visit, Bible teacher Dr. Todd Fink brought his group to see the red heifers. "Shiloh has so much significance," he said. "It was the spiritual capital of Israel for 369 years." 

"This is huge. This is huge," he exclaimed. "And the one gal that we, that was giving us the tour, she said that part of the reason why Hamas invaded is because of these red heifers. And according to prophecy, these red heifers are significant. From the time of Israel's history, they say that only nine have been killed for these ashes. And so for these to be here, and Shiloh here, and for that to fit in with what appears to be prophecy on the horizon, we're living in monumental days, unbelievable times."