Wanted: baby boys to be raised in an isolated compound for the first 13 years of their life. If the legendary Jewish Temple is rebuilt, the children will be ready to serve as high priests.
That's the offer a Jerusalem-based religious group is making to ultra-Orthodox parents in an intensive campaign to recruit boys for the Jewish priestly caste known as Cohenim.The high priests would be needed to ritually purify the Jewish people if the ancient Jewish Temple, destroyed by the Romans 2,000 years ago, is rebuilt in the Old City of Jerusalem.
"We need families to donate their children for the cause - it will be hard at first, but once we start more will follow," said Rabbi Yosef Elboim of the Movement for Establishing the Temple.
So far, several families have expressed interest, and at least one woman who is due to give birth in two months has agreed to have her son raised for the priesthood.
"We hope he will be our pioneer - we will start with him," said Elboim, who is in charge of finding the children. Altogether, the group hopes to bring together about 20 babies to raise.
The boys would grow up in a special compound, which has already been donated by a yeshiva, an Orthodox Jewish school. Frequent visits would be allowed by parents, relatives and friends, who would have to observe strict rules governing defilement.
Until at least their 13th birthday, the boys would live on an elevated floor of the compound, because touching the ground could result in ritual defilement due to contact with unknown graves.
Among the families who have expressed interest in donating their sons are former members of the outlawed right-wing Kach movement.
"The Temple is one of the central parts of our ideology - we view its rebuilding as part of Jewish experience," said former Kach activist Noam Federman.
Some in Israel fear that extremist groups might seek to rebuild the Temple on a site where some of Islam's holiest shrines are located.
By tradition, a portent that the Temple is to be rebuilt would be the appearance of a pure red heifer. Last year, there was excitement over the discovery of a red heifer.
But later, white hairs were spotted on the young cow's tail, and she was deemed impure.