THE TACHASH

THE TACHASH

In Parshat Terumah we read about the construction of the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary from which Hashem spoke to us.  In the Parshah we learned that the roof of the Mishkan would be made up of skins of an animal identified as a “Tachash.”

Not Just Another Pretty Face

 But what animal is the Tachash?  My best guess is that the Tachash is a  Hippopotamus.

For one thing, a hippopotamus is not what you would call a thin-skinned creature.  Its skin is so thick that it is almost bullet proof, and at 1 ½ inches thick most certainly arrow proof.

Tachash skins were used in the Mishkan where they served as a form of protection and weather proofing. They formed the outermost layer of the Mishkan’s roof.

 We were commanded at Exodus 26:14,

 וְעָשִׂיתָ מִכְסֶה לָאֹהֶל, עֹרֹת אֵילִם מְאָדָּמִים,

 וּמִכְסֵה עֹרֹת תְּחָשִׁים, מִלְמָעְלָה

"And you shall make a covering for the tent of ram skins dyed red and a covering of Tachash skins above”.

As in the Book of Numbers, Chapter 4, Tachash skins were also utilized in the transport many of the components of the Mishkan. These components were wrapped up in the skins prior to their transport.

The Talmud, Shabbat 28a says that the Tachash was multicolored:

שיש בו גבוונין הרבה

“…in that it was multicolored…”

A hippopotamus’ upper parts are purplish-grey to blue-black, while the under parts and areas around the eyes and ears can be brownish-pink.  When out of the water they will secrete a red oily coating that protects its skin from drying out.

If you need a proof text, consider some verses from Chapter 40 of the Book of Job in which a monstrous primeval land animal who has enormous strength and is called a “Behemoth” is described and this creature resembles a hippopotamus:

40:15 - Behold now the Behemoth that I have made with you; he eats grass like an ox.

40:17 - His tail hardens like a cedar; the sinews of his testicles are knit together.

40:18 - His limbs are as strong as copper, his bones as a load of iron.

40:21 - He lies under the shadows, hidden in the reeds and the swamp.

The hippopotamus is large, very large; males weigh more than 4000 lb. The hippopotamus spends much of its time in lakes, swamps and rivers. Before becoming locally extinct they inhabited Egypt and the region known as the Levant, which includes Canaan.  Think of the Hula Valley and the area south of Tiveria.  Archaeological evidence exists of its presence in the Levant, dating to less than 3,000 years ago.

Hippos measure 10 to 17 feet in length, including a tail of about 1 to 2 feet in length. The testes of the males descend only partially.  Their diet in nature consists almost entirely of grass. They are considered to be extremely aggressive 

On an interesting note the most powerful land animal on Earth, the Behemoth/Hippopotamus is paired in the Book of Job with another primeval monstrous animal, the Leviathan. It is the most powerful sea creature on Earth and is thought by many to be a whale.  Whales and hippopotamus’ share a common origin. The most recent theory of the origins of the Hippopotamus family suggests that hippos and whales shared a common semiaquatic ancestor that branched off from their common ancestor around 60 million years ago. This ancestral group then split into two branches around 54 million years ago.

And in the World to Come, as many believe, just as the skin of the Leviathan will serve as a tent for the righteous, perhaps it is only fitting that the skin of the hippopotamus served as a tent for us when we wandered in the Wilderness.