One Step Closer to Redemption

Reishit HaGez - giving to the Kohain the first cuttings of the fleece of sheep grown in the Land of Israel.

Beit El Celebrates Wool-Shearing

(IsraelNN.com) Surrounded by hundreds of happy children, the last of a herd of five sheep had its wool shorn in Beit El Tuesday afternoon - not for profit, but to fulfill a Biblical commandment. Town elders said it was the first time in probably 2,000 years that the commandment had been fulfilled there.

The story began several years ago when Rabbi Zalman Baruch Melamed, the rabbi of Beit El and the dean of the town's yeshiva, began to wonder when he might ever have the chance to fulfill the Biblical commandment (mitzvah) of Reishit HaGez - giving to the Cohen (the priest) the first cuttings of the fleece of sheep grown in the Land of Israel.

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"So after cutting the fleece of one of the sheep and ritually slaughtering it, we are now ready to give these parts, as well as the wool, to a Cohen - and not just any Cohen, but to our great 'teacher and master,' and one who is of undisputed Priestly lineage, the former Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Avraham Kahane-Shapira."