The other Unicorn: Keresh, Daf Ditty 28b

Following yesterday’s ditty on the unicorn…..

In the time of Adam HaRishon, the force that could lead him astray was the relatively simple,
natural impulse towards animalistic traits. The most noticeable aspect of this loss of humanity is
the capacity for intentional destructiveness. This negative trait of aggressiveness is aptly
represented by the animal’s natural weapon of destruction — its horn.
For Adam, the tendency towards animalistic crassness and violence was his single moral
weakness. His atonement offering needed to encompass the themes of animalism and
destructiveness. Therefore, Adam’s offering was, aptly, an animal bearing a single horn.
Later generations, however, invented more sophisticated forms of debauchery and immorality.
“God made man upright, but they have sought for themselves all sorts of schemes” (Ecclesiastes
7:29).
Now we must contend with secondary faults and vices. They are the product of traits that are
intrinsically good but have been distorted by evil intentions. In the more complex reality of our
world, atonement requires offerings of animals with multiple horns, horns that sprout from both
sides of the animal’s head.

Rav kook (Adapted from Ein Eyah vol. III, p. 108)

 ‫ ַוֲﬠֵצי‬,‫ה ְוֹעֹרת ֵאיִלם ְמָאָדִּמים ְוֹעֹרת ְתָּחִשׁים‬ 5 and rams' skins dyed red, and sealskins, and acacia-
.‫ִשִׁטּים‬ wood;

Exodus 25:5

Rashi, based on Rav Yosef’s opinion in the Talmud, Shabbat 28a explains that “tachashim” is a
species of animal which only existed at the time of Moshe. It had many (possibly six or sixty)
colors and Onkelos translated it Sasgona (Sas=rejoice, Gavna=color) because it rejoices and is
proud with its multi-colors.

Rabbi Illa said in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish: Rabbi Mayer used to say: The “tachash”
that existed in the days of Moshe was a unique creature for the sages could not decide whether it
was a type of beheimah (domesticated animal such as cattle, sheep, goats, horses, donkeys) or a
type of chayah (non-domesticated animal such as deer antelope, canines, felines) and it had a
single horn on its forehead. It presented itself to Moshe according to the need of the hour. He made
of it a cover for the Mishkan. And then the species was hidden.

Shabbat 28b

Since Rabbi Meir said that the “tachash” had a single horn in its forehead, it is likely that it was
a kosher animal since animals with horns and split hooves are kosher.

On the other hand, since the Keresh (a chayah with a single horn) exists, it can be said that the
‘tachash’ is actually a type of chayah and not a beheimah.
In Parshat Vayakhel, there are three mentions of the “tachash skins” which are used to make the
“ohel”, the covering of the Mishkan (Tabernacle).

In Parshat Trumah, the ‘tachash skins’ are on the list of materials that God tells Moshe to request
from B’nai Yisrael to be donated for the Mishkan (Shmot 25:5): “…Red dyed ram skins, ‘tachash’
skins and acacia wood…” In God’s instructions of how to make the Mishkan (Shmot 26:14) we
read: “Make a covering for the ‘ohel’ out of red dyed ram’s skins, and a covering of ‘tachash’ skins
above that.”

In Parshat Vayakhel, Moshe passes on God’s message to B’nai Yisrael (Shmot 35:5-7) “Collect
from among yourselves a Trumah offering to God…and red dyed ram’s skins, ‘tachash skins’ and
acacia wood.” The generosity of B’nai Yisrael to donate materials to the Mishkan is evident
(Shmot 35:23) “Every man (or woman) who had tchelet (greenish blue wool), argaman (dark red
wool) tola’at shani (crimson wool) fine linen, goat’s hair, red dyed rams’ skins and ‘tachash skins’
brought them.” Once they had enough materials, the Mishkan was constructed (Shmot 36:19) “He
made a covering for the ‘ohel’ out of red dyed ram’s skins, and a covering of ‘tachash’ skins above
that.”

Where do the “tachash skins” come from?

Rashi (Shmot 25:5), based on Rav Yosef’s opinion in the Talmud, Shabbat 28a explains that
“tachashim” is a species of animal which only existed at the time of Moshe. It had many (possibly
six or sixty) colors and Onkelos translated it Sasgona (Sas=rejoice, Gavna=color) because it
rejoices and is proud with its multi-colors.

The Talmud, Shabbat 28b continues the explanation of the “tachash”:

Rabbi Illa said in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish: Rabbi Mayer used to say: The “tachash”
that existed in the days of Moshe was a unique creature for the sages could not decide whether it
was a type of beheimah (domesticated animal such as cattle, sheep, goats, horses, donkeys) or a
type of chayah (non-domesticated animal such as deer antelope, canines, felines) and it had a
single horn on its forehead. It presented itself to Moshe according to the need of the hour. He made
of it a cover for the Mishkan. And then the species was hidden.

Since Rabbi Meir said that the “tachash” had a single horn in its forehead, it is likely that it was a
kosher animal since animals with horns and split hooves are kosher.

On the other hand, since the keresh (a chayah with a single horn) exists, it can be said that the
‘tachash’ is actually a type of chayah and not a beheimah.

What is the keresh?

THE IDENTITY OF THE "KERESH" in Chullin 59

The Beraisa teaches that a sign that an animal is a Kosher Chayah (and its Chelev is permitted) is
that it has horns and hooves. Rebbi Dosa says that if it has horns, then one does not need to examine
its hooves, but if it has hooves, one still needs to examine its horns. The Beraisa adds that the
Chelev of the "Keresh" is permitted, even though it has only one horn.

The Gemara quotes Rav Yehudah who says that the Keresh is the deer of Bei Ila'i. Rav Yosef says
that the length of the deer of Bei Ila'i is sixteen Amos. It is possible that Bei Ila'i refers to the upper
worlds ("Bei Ila'i"), and the deer of Bei Ila'i is a spiritual creature, and not an animal that exists in
this world. However, it seems that there still is some animal, the Keresh, that exists in this world,
for which the Beraisa finds it necessary to state that its Chelev is permitted.

What is this one-horned "Keresh"?

(a) The ARUCH HA'CHADASH writes that this one-horned animal is the rhinoceros. However,
the rhinoceros obviously is not a Kosher animal; it neither ruminates nor has split hooves. The PRI
CHADASH also understands the "Keresh" to be the rhinoceros and, consequently, he rules against
the opinion of Rebbi Dosa who says that the Keresh is a permitted animal.

However, the BECHOR SHOR asserts that Rebbi Dosa is discussing only animals that possess
both signs of a Kosher animal, and he is not referring to the rhinoceros. (See "Sacred Monsters -
Mysterious and Mythical Creatures of Scripture, Talmud, and Midrash," page 74.)

(b) RASHI in Bava Basra (16b, DH Karna d'Keresh) says that the Keresh "is a type of Chayah
and its horns are black like dye." It is interesting to note that Rashi writes "its horns," when the
Gemara here states that it has only one horn (see RASHASH there who changes the Girsa in Rashi
to read "horn").

The MAHARAM SHIF asks a similar question on the Gemara later (60a). The Gemara there
quotes Rav Yehudah who says that "the bull that Adam ha'Rishon offered as a Korban had one
horn on its forehead." However, the Gemara shortly afterwards quotes Rav Yehudah as saying that
"Adam offered a bull whose horns grew before its hooves," saying that the bull had "horns," in the
plural!

The Maharam Shif suggests that perhaps the answer lies in the seemingly superfluous words, "on
its forehead." Rav Yehudah says that the bull that Adam offered "had one horn on its forehead" to
differentiate that horn from the other, normal horns that it had. That is, besides its normal horns, it
had one additional horn on its forehead.

The same approach answers why Rashi refers to the "horns" of the Keresh. Rashi is referring to
the two normal horns of the Keresh, while the Gemara here is referring to the single horn that
grows on its forehead. Accordingly, the SICHAS CHULIN suggests that the Gemara's description
of the Keresh as a very large animal (sixteen Amos) that lives in the wild (Chayah) and that has
two horns on the top of its head and one horn on its forehead matches the description of one known
animal: the giraffe. While most giraffes have only two horns, many have an additional bump on
their foreheads (see Graphic #1:3). In some subspecies, this bump develops into a horn. The body
of a giraffe certainly is long, and -- depending on the various opinions of the Amah -- the giraffe
indeed can reach sixteen Amos in height. Moreover, giraffes live in the wild, and have split hooves
and chew their cud.

According to Rashi it is a single horned deer. Aruch says that it is a unicorn, a giant beast whose
horn has many medicinal properties.

Although the Yerushalmi identifies the Keresh with the Tachash I am interested in the sacrifice
that Adam Harishon brought nefore the Torah determined what sin offerings should consist of.
The Midrash equates this with the Keresh, this single horned animal. If the course the talmud is
bothered as to whether it is a chaya or a beheima for ritual purposes, in an attempt to synchronize
Adam’s actions with what would later become the Priestly Levitical rules of the Temple
sacrifice.

Our answer lies in the agadda brought in Avoda Zara 8a:

‫ת"ר יום שנברא בו אדם הראשון כיון ששקעה עליו חמה אמר אוי לי שבשביל שסרחתי עולם חשוך בעדי ויחזור עולם‬
‫לתוהו ובוהו וזו היא מיתה שנקנסה עלי מן השמים היה יושב בתענית ובוכה כל הלילה וחוה בוכה כנגדו כיון שעלה עמוד‬
‫ לב( השחר אמר מנהגו של עולם הוא עמד והקריב שור שקרניו קודמין לפרסותיו שנאמר‬,‫ותיטב לה' משור )תהלים סט‬
‫פר מקרין מפריס‬

The Sages taught: On the day that Adam the first man was created, when the sun set upon
him he said: Woe is me, as because I sinned, the world is becoming dark around me, and
the world will return to the primordial state of chaos and disorder. And this is the death that
was sentenced upon me from Heaven. He spent all night fasting and crying, and Eve was
crying opposite him. Once dawn broke, he said: Evidently, the sun sets and night arrives, and
this is the order of the world. He arose and sacrificed a bull whose horns preceded its hoofs
in the order that they were created, as it is stated: “And it shall please the Lord better than a
bullock that has horns and hoofs”

‫ְוִתיַ֣טב ֭ ַ ֽליהָוה ִמ֥שּׁוֹר ָ֗פּר ַמְק ִ֥רן ַמְפ ִֽריס׃‬

“That will please the LORD more than oxen, than bulls with horns and hooves.”

This verse is referring to the one particular bull whose horns preceded its hoofs.
‫ואמר רב יהודה אמר שמואל שור שהקריב אדם הראשון קרן אחת היתה ]לו[ במצחו שנאמר ותיטב לה' משור פר מקרין‬
‫מפריס מקרין תרתי משמע אמר רב נחמן בר יצחק מקרן כתיב‬

And Rav Yehuda says that Shmuel says: The bull that Adam the first man sacrificed had
one horn in its forehead, as it is stated: “And it shall please the Lord better than a bullock
that has horns [makrin] and hooves.” The Gemara raises a difficulty: Isn’t makrin plural,
which indicates two horns? Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak says: Mikkeren is written, i.e., the
letter yod is missing from the word, indicating that there was only one horn.

Bringing us back to Rav Kook’s thought of the unicorn vs multiple horns.

The sacrifice Adam brought represented his gratitude for being spared. The verse prior to the
prooftext reads:

‫ ִ֣הים ְבִּ֑שׁיר ַוֲאַגְדֶּ֥לנּוּ ְבתוֹ ָֽדה׃‬ž‫ֲא ַ ֽהְלָ֣לה ֵשׁם־ֱא‬

“I will extol God’s name with song, and exalt Him with praise.”, implying the Psalmist sees his
praises more worthy than the sacrificial offering of horned bulls.

That is the very prooftext cited for the sacrifice itself. The semantic meaning of the horn, one
horn versus two horns exercising those amoraim betrayed the very scriptural deconstruction of
the need for sacrifice if the heart is present.

Adam clearly was filled with gratitude for the sun coming up the next morning, and his survival
the dark night of the soul. He brings a sacrifice to show his gratitude. But the critical motivation
was embedded in the psalmist’s claim for the heart not the deed.

Appendix: Sources
The Keresh is the enormous deer of Be-Ila'i, and it has but one horn[1] as black as dye.[2] The hide
of the keresh of Be-Ila'i is sixteen cubits long (24 feet).[3] Some of the Sages of the Talmud
(Tannaim and Amoraim) identify this creature as the legendary Tachash.[4] It is associated with
the Tigris, the giant lion of the same wild habitat. Be-Ila'i is an unknown forest of this name
according to Rashi,[5] also according to Lewysohn.[6] According to Jastrow it refers to the
mountains of interior Asia.[7]
The keresh is mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud (Yerushalmi) Shabbos 2:3, in the Babylonian
Talmud (Talmud Bavli) Shabbat 28b, Chullin 59b, Bava Basra 16b, and in the Midrash Koheles
Rabbah 1:28. Rashi's commentary on Bava Basra 16b says the keresh has horns black as dye, and
while there is no contradiction in saying that the horn of the keresh is as black as dye, some took
the construction of this comment in its most mechanical literal sense to mean that it has a single
horn. The keresh has been speculatively identified as possibly the giraffe, and also possibly as
the rhinoceros. But the keresh is said to be a clean animal, and the rhinoceros is an unclean
animal. According to the Septuagint, and according to the rabbinical commentaries of Saadia
Gaon, Rabbeinu Yonah and Radak, the giraffe is the ‫ ָו ָֽזֶמר‬zemer of Deuteronomy 14:5 — chamois,
mountain sheep, camelopardalus, wild sheep.[5][8]
An awareness of ancient folklore having roots in prehistoric reality may have reasonably
suggested to the Sages the actual existence of the enormous keresh. Possible sightings and capture
of what may have been a giant one-horned Eurasian rhinoceros (Elasmotherium), once native to
the central Asian and European steppes, have been preserved in legends. The animal has anciently
been called a "deer-like" beast with one big horn, a "big bull" with one horn on its head, and a
giant "unicorn" with five colors.[9] However, the Elasmotherium was not big enough to be
the keresh, measuring only about 10 cubits nose to tail, 15–16 feet, and it is supposed to have
become extinct over 10,000 years ago. [10] There is currently no certain consensus on the identity
of the Keresh.

References

1. Jump up↑ See Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Bavli),

Seder Kodashim, Tractate Chullin, Folio 59b (Chullin 59b).
—scroll down to page 192.
2. Jump up↑ "horns black as dye"—Rashi's commentary on the
Babylonian Talmud Tractate, Bava Basra 16b / Bava
Bathra 16b. —halakhah.com —scroll down to pages 51–53
"Keren-Happuch because — so it was explained in the
academy of Rabbi Shila — she had a complexion like the horn
of a keresh. This explanation was laughed at in the West,
[where it was pointed out that a complexion like] the horn of a
keresh would be a blemish." page 51.
The commentary reads: "Because it is blackish" and "This is
according to the reading of Rashi, ‫ככורכמא דרשקא‬. Tosafta,
 however, reads ‫ ככוחלא דרשקא‬pigment made from saffron’,
which had a specially beautifying effect on the skin. In this
case the name Keren-Happuch will mean, ‘the gloss of
pigment’." page 53.
3. Jump up↑ 16 cubits = 288 inches, 24 feet, 7.3152 meters (one
cubit = 18 inches = 0.4572 meters).
4. Jump up↑ Babylonian Talmud, Seder Mo'ed,
Tractate Shabbat, Folio 28a PARTb (Shab. 28ab) —
halakhah.com.
"Since there is the keresh, which is a species of beast, and it
has only one horn, one can say that it [the tachash] is a kind
of wild beast."
5. ↑ Jump up to:5.0 5.1 Rashi's commentary on the Talmud
Tractate, Bava Basra 16b. See Natan Slifkin's Sacred
Monsters: Mysterious and Mythological Creatures of
Scripture, Talmud and Midrash Chapter One: Unicorns of
Different Colors: "The Keresh"; "Is the Unicorn a
Multicorn?"; and "The Rhino-Keres" pp. 69-75
6. Jump up↑ Lewysohn, Yehudi Leib Ludwig (1858) Zoologie
des Talmuds, p. 70. —jewishvirtuallibrary.org
7. Jump up↑ Jastrow, Marcus (1926) Dictionary of the
Targumim, the Talmud Bavli and Midrashic Literature p. 520,
column a, top. ‫— טגרס טגרוס‬tyndalearchive.com —click on
letter ‫ ט‬Tet, at top of page image select next page until
page 520 appears. —" ‫ טגרוס‬: m (tigris, v. Sm. Ant. s.
v.) tiger. "
8. Jump up↑ "According to the Septuagint" —See English and
Greek text of Septuagint ΔEϒTEPONOMION Deuteronomy
14:5
14:5 the stag, and doe, and pygarg, and wild goat,
and camelopard.
14:5 ἔλαφον καὶ δορκάδα καὶ πύγαργον, ὄρυγα
καὶ καμηλοπάρδαλιν·
See Masoretic Hebrew Text of Deuteronomy 14:5 (no
 vowels) —‫ —וזמר‬zemer
14:5 ‫ ותאו‬,‫ ויחמור; ואקו ודישן‬,‫וזמר ה איל וצבי‬.
9. Jump up↑ Five sources:
• Russell, James R. (2009). "From Zoroastrian Cosmology
and Armenian heresiology to the Russian novel"
• Allison, Christine; Joristen-Pruschke, Anke; Wendtland,
Antje. From Daēnā to Dîn: Religion, Kultur und Sprache
in der iranischen Welt; Festschrift für Philip Kezenbroek,
zum 60. Geburstag. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. pp. 141–
208.
• Glavin, Terry (2007). The Sixth Extinction (First U.S. ed.)
New York: Thomas Dunne Books (St. Martin's Press). pp.
129–130.
• Sinor, Denis (1960) Sur les noms altaiques de la licorne
Denis Sinor. Cambridge. Wiener Zeitschrift für der Kunde
des Morgenlandes (in French) (56): 168–176. —Rhino
Resource Center: The World's Largest Rhino Information
Website.
• Ibn Faḍlān, Ahmad; Frye, Richard N. (October 2005). Ibn
Fadlan's Journey to Russia: A Tenth-century Traveller
from Baghdad to the Volga River, translated by Richard
Nelson Frye, 2005. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers.
p. 60. ISBN 978-1-55876-366-1.
10. Jump up↑ Three sources:
• Titov, V.V., Tesakov, A.S. editors, Quaternary
stratigraphy and paleontology of the Southern Russia:
connections between Europe, Africa and Asia: Abstracts
of the International INQUA-SEQS Conference (June 21–
26, 2010) Rostov-on-Don, publisher Russian Academy of
Science. Baigusheva, Vera, Titov, Vadim, Pleistocene
Large Mammal Associations of the Sea of Azov and
Adjacent Regions, (pages 24–27)
• V.V. Titov, V.V., Tesakov, A.S. editors, Quaternary
stratigraphy and paleontology of the Southern Russia:
connections between Europe, Africa and Asia: Abstracts
 of the International INQUA-SEQS Conference (June 21–
26, 2010) Rostov-on-Don, publisher Russian Academy of
Science. Kosintsev, Pavel Relict Mammal Species of the
Middle Pleistocene in Late Pleistocene Fauna of the
Western Siberia South, pages 78–79.]
• Hagstrum, J. T., Firestone, R. B., West, A., article,
"Beringian Megafaunal Extinctions at ~37 ka B.P.: Do
Micrometeorites Embedded in Fossil Tusks and Skulls
Indicate an Extraterrestial Precursor to the Younger Dryas
Event?", journal American Geophysical Union, Fall
Meeting 2009, abstract #PP31D-1385, 2009, publisher,
The Smithsonian/NASA Astrophysics Data System,
volume 31, pages 1385