Red Heifer Painting

The red heifer (Hebrew: פָּרָה אֲדֻמָּה‎; para adumma), a female bovine which has never been pregnant or milked or yoked, also known as the red cow, was a cow brought to the priests as a sacrifice according to the Torah, and its ashes were used for the ritual purification of Tum'at HaMet ("the impurity of the dead"), that is, an Israelite who had come into contact with a corpse. The Temple Institute, an organization dedicated to preparing the reconstruction of a Third Temple in Jerusalem, has been attempting to identify red heifer candidates consistent with the requirements of Numbers 19:1 22 and Mishnah Tractate Parah. In recent years, the institute thought to have identified two candidates, one in 1997 and another in 2002. The Temple Institute had initially declared both kosher but later found each to be unsuitable. The institute has been raising funds in order to use modern technology to produce a red heifer that is genetically based on the Red Angus. In September 2018, the institute announced a red heifer candidate was born saying "the heifer is currently a viable candidate and will be examined [to see] whether it possess[es] the necessary qualifications for the red heifer."