Sold!

Yesterday, we sold our entire collection of live animals! We did this because our food costs have become exorbitant. So we sold them all to a friend of ours, Rabbi David Bar-Cohn. The total value of the collection is around forty thousand shekels; he made a down payment of ten shekels, and will pay the balance if and when he ever decides to remove them from the museum premises.

In the meanwhile, the animals are still at the museum, but with a very significant difference: they are now the property of someone who is, as his name suggests, a Kohen (priest). Now, a kohen is the recipient of Terumah and Maaser (tithes). However, today, when there is no Temple, Kohanim are assumed to be in a state of impurity, and may not eat Terumah and Maaser. But their animals can! So we will now be receiving Terumah and Maaser from various sources, at no charge, to feed to Rabbi Bar-Cohn's animals. Problem solved!

Pictured below, from left: Rabbi Dr. Natan Slifkin, Rabbi David Bar-Cohn, and Rav Menachem Copperman, along with one of Rabbi Bar-Cohn's new acquisitions.