Deities appear to Native Americans ( 1996 )
"A spiritual renewal swept through Navajo country after deities reportedly appeared in May to two respected tribal women," according to a Dallas Morning News article. Thousands of Navajos have visited Rocky Ridge, Arizona, in recent months to pray and leave offerings at the site where Sarah Begay and her 96-year-old mother, Irene Yazzie, had the experience.

The article continues: "According to tribal members who visited the site, the Navajo women were inside their home when a thunderous noise came from nowhere and drew them to the door to investigate. What they saw standing before them, they said, were two ancient male Navajo spirits.

"The daughter [Ms Begay] was kind of in shock, and she couldn't move," said Karen Abe, a Navajo woman who visited the site and spoke with Ms Begay's family. "The deities said the Navajos haven't been saying their prayers.'"

"She said the spirits warned that the Navajo people are headed for perilous times if they lose their traditional ways. Just as quickly as they appeared, the deities were said to have vanished. Ms Begay said they left behind footprints and sprinklings of corn pollen, which Navajos traditionally place on the ground during special prayers. A shrine has been placed there, but no traces of the footprints or powder remain, said Mrs Abe."

The article also quotes a Native American pastor, the Reverend Abe Jackson, as saying: "I believe that there are things that happen that not only encourage us as native people, but continue the hope for us that our heritage and culture are not being lost." (Source: Dallas Morning News, USA; reported in Share International, September 1996 )
 

Some Jews see the heifer's birth as sign from God that the coming of the Messiah is near. Many Muslims, and some less observant Jews, are concerned that extremists might take the red heifer as a signal to destroy the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa mosques, which now occupy Jerusalem's Temple Mount. That would clear the way for thc construction of a third Jewish temple - and be likely to provoke a war. "Traditionally, there have been only nine such red cows in our history The first was prepared under the direction of Moses and Aaron in the desert. Thc second was officiated over by Ezra upon the Jews' return from the Babylonian exile. Seven more were prepared during the period of the Second Temple. According to the 12th century Jewish philosopher Maimonides, the tenth and final red heifer will be prepared by the Messiah."

A dozen rabbis have examincd thc calf and said she is the long-awaited ritual heifer, meeting, so far, all the criteria described by the ancients. If the calf lives unblemished for another 18 months, she can theoretically be put to use. "It is written that it is the 10th heifer that the Messiah will discover and here we have the 10th heifer. This is a clear sign that the Messiah is near," said Rabbi Ido Weber Erlich of Jerusalem in an interview on Israel Radio. ( Sources: Boston Globe; Newsweek Magazine; Washington Jewish Week, USA )