They have come from halfway across the world and are kept under tight security and raised according to the strictest rules. They are five pure red heifers without blemish who have never worked, given birth, been milked or worn a yoke.

These red heifers and the archaic ritual they were brought to Israel for stand at the heart of a convoluted effort by a segment of ultranationalist Jews to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the third holiest site in Islam that has stood on a hill in the Old City of Jerusalem for more than 1,000 years, and replace it with a “Third Temple”.