Group wants to raise boys to help build Third Temple

JERUSALEM, March 3 (JTA) — An Israeli group wants select families to donate their newborn sons to help rebuild the Temple. The Movement to Rebuild the Temple is only considering families who are Kohanim — descendants of the priestly class that served in the First and Second Temples. After gathering in the newborns, the group plans to set them up in an isolated compound near Jerusalem. “The idea is to raise a child who, from the moment of birth will not touch the dead, will not be under the same roof as the dead, not even in a hospital,” Rabbi Yosef Elboim, who has been assigned by the group to find families willing to participate, told the Israeli daily Ha’aretz. At the age of 13, the boys would be able to slaughter and burn a red heifer — a rare cow mentioned in the Bible who some view as a sign of the Messiah’s imminent arrival — whose ashes would be used in a purification rite necessary for those about to embark on the reconstruction of the Temple. The group plans to raise 20 boys in the compound in order to have alternate candidates “if for some reason a child has a defect that could rule him out,” Elboim told Israel Radio. He added that the children’s families would be able to visit them in the compound after going through a ritual bath and removing any items that may have had contact with the dead, the principal source of impurity according to Jewish law. He dismissed suggestions that the isolation of the children would amount to cruelty. “It is essential. There is no other choice,” he said, comparing the compound to sports camps that some countries use to prepare future athletes. Elboim said one family had already agreed to participate and others were interested. One major obstacle still faces the project — finding a pure red heifer. A heifer was born in Israel last year — and made headlines when the group said it was a sign that the time had come to rebuild the Temple. But it was ruled out as a candidate after two white hairs were discovered on its nose.