Twenty miles north of Jerusalem, five Texas Red Angus cows calmly graze under the hot sun, oblivious to the international firestorm they have recently set aflame. Hamas referred to these cows as one of the causes for attacking and murdering Israeli civilians on October 7, explaining their importation as an “aggression” connected with a “detestable religious myth,” quoted its spokesman.

Hamas has called the importation of cows an attempt to rebuild Temple—fearing this would signal the end of Arab dominion over the area where Archaeologists claim the Mosque once stood.

Still, rabbis involved with the red heifers stress this does not forebode an imminent rebuilding of the Temple. Shapira also considers the cows appearing in Israel, and especially Shiloh—The last place where the Tabernacle rested before King Solomon built The Temple in Jerusalem—as something surprising. 

“We’re here where the Tabernacle stood for the first time — for 369 years in the first capital city of Israel,” said Shapira, who is the Chief Content Officer of Ancient Shiloh. “We brought here the five red heifers from Texas. It’s an amazing thing and people are coming from all over to see them.”

Shapira works at Ancient Shiloh teaching thousands of visitors a year at Azarot HaTanach and leading hands-on workshops on how to use ancient tools that were used in Bible days. Shapira attributes the global attention to what these red cows may symbolize, but says that they are intended as educational tools.

“The idea is that we’ll have people here from all over to see Shiloh… and to learn about the subject of red heifers, which is very spiritual and interesting and amazing,” she said. “They will enter the visitor center, and then they’ll see a movie, and the screen will go up, and from a window, they’ll see the red heifers.”

He also went on to dismiss the myriad of rumors being spread across social media about how we are imminently planning a sacrifice for these red heifers. “Meaning, there are no certificates when the ceremony of the reddish heifers should be performed,” she underscored. 

This is something important so that has to be the first level of agreement, between rabbis and Israelis–the people of Israel—then secondly with all other nations. We hope that it will be with agreement and in a manner of peace so that good comes to the world.