Not in Israel, apparently. Supposedly a pure red heifer has not been born in Israel for a very long time (I can't recall if it's since the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, or even before that).
The appearance of a pure red heifer has long been taken as a messianic sign. There was big excitement a few years back, when one was supposedly born. Hopes were dashed when they found a few white hairs.
They sure are.
Like Texas, I can show you a thousand just like it within 10 minutes of my house. But hey, if everyone needs an excuse to start WWIII, here it is.
No. The requirement is without a single hair that is not red. Not common at all--anywhere. The posts about the earlier red's don't count because the candidate turned up with a white or black hair--maybe this one will too.
On the other hand, the prophecy and the requirements are not generally well understood, and application is less certain than believed.
Daniel 9:27 is a forecast that three and one-half years before the return of Jesus Christ, the person he describes as a "Prince" who is commonly understood to be the Anti-Christ (but who may be the False Prophet--Anti-Christ's spirtual right hand) will cause the Jewish sacrificial worship system to be terminated.
The sacrificial worship system has not been conducted since the spring of 70AD so implicit in the prophecy is the proposition that it will be reinstituted. No argument.
Dispensationalist believers generally assume and say that reinstitution of the worship system requires reconstruction of the Temple--that is probably not so. The sacrificial system was conducted for many years before construction of the first Temple, the last forty or fifty years at least in a tent. The actual leather tent (tabernacle) last used as a worship site exists in the hands of archeologists in Jerusalem. Courses of priests (descendents of Levi, Kohites)to conduct the sacrifices have been in training at the University in Jerusalem for some years.
It should surprise no one if the add on's to the Word requiring reconstruction of the Temple prove incorrect--and the sacrifices are resumed in the Tent. A 1974 article in Bible Archology Review supports the proposition that the holy of holies is actually located under the cupola of the winds and not under the Mosque.
The 18th Chapter of Isiah is a prophecy that at a time of famine in Ethopia, a gift will be brought from Ethopia to Jerusalem. There is of course a fair position that the Ark of the Covenant is located in Aksum (in Ethopia).
So, a series of events in which the Ark is returned to Jerusalem, intiating a return to the sacrifices would satisfy the condition of Daniel 9:27 and those events could occur in a very short period of time as contrasted with the time required to reconstruct the Temple.
Where does the Heifer fit? Well the requirement in Numbers is for a pureficiation rite accomplished with water and ashes from a red heifer before you conduct the sacrifices. Whether or not that is a real requirement I am uncertain although I suspect the orthodox rabbi's would say that it is.
However, the ashes from the current heifer are to be mixed with the ashes from the last heifer going back to mixing with the heifer used at the time of Moses (there have been a total of six or nine or some number like that in total, ashes mixed in sequence, of red heifers used for this purpose). Since the location of the earlier ashes is not known their recovery may also be a condition although there is some information around about where they might have been hidden.
At the point you see this stuff coming together however, you recognize that one significant precondition to occurence of the Abomination of Desolation event in Daniel 9:27 is in place. Now you can scoff about little green men all you like but at some point, you need to recognize that God is real and means to do exactly precisely what He says He is going to do.
The red heifer has to be without spot or blemish. A single white hair disqualifies them