## Midrash Tanchuma, Terumah

###### Midrash Tanchuma, Terumah 6:1
[Midrash Tanchuma, Terumah 6:1](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Midrash%20Tanchuma/s/Terumah/r/6:1)

‎**וְזֹאת** הַתְּרוּמָה וְגוֹ'. וְעֹרֹת אֵילִם מְאָדָּמִים וְעֹרֹת תְּחָשִׁים. רַבִּי יְהוּדָה וְרַבִּי נֶחְמְיָה. רַבִּי יְהוּדָה אוֹמֵר: חַיָּה טְהוֹרָה גְּדוֹלָה הָיְתָה בַּמִּדְבָּר וְקֶרֶן אַחַת הָיָה לָהּ בְּמִצְחָהּ, וּבְעוֹרָהּ שִׁשָּׁה גְּוָנִים, וְנָטְלוּ אוֹתָהּ וְעָשׂוּ מִמֶּנָּה יְרִיעוֹת. וְרַבִּי נְחֶמְיָה אוֹמֵר: מַעֲשֵׂה נִסִּים הָיְתָה, וּלְשָׁעָה שֶׁנִּבְרֵאת, בָּהּ בַּשָּׁנָה נִגְנְזָה. וְעֹרֹת תְּחָשִׁים, לָמָּה? דִּכְתִיב: אֹרֶךְ הַיְרִיעָה הָאַחַת שְׁלֹשִים בָּאַמָּה. מִי מֵבִיא לְךָ יְרִיעָה שֶׁל שְׁלֹשִׁים אַמָּה. אֶלָּא מַעֲשֵׂה נֵס, לְשָׁעָה שֶׁנִּבְרֵאת נִגְנְזָה.

**Midrash Tanhuma-Yelammedenu, trans. Samuel A. Berman:**
**This is the offering … and rams’ skins dyed red, and sealskins (Exod. 25:3).** R. Judah and R. Nehemiah discussed this verse. R. Judah said: It was a large pure animal, with a single horn in its forehead and a skin of six different colors that roamed the desert.⁹ They captured one of them and from its skin made a covering for the ark. R. Nehemiah contended that it was a miraculous creature He created for that precise moment, and that it disappeared immediately thereafter from earth. Why is it called *orot tahashim* (“sealskins,” lit. “skins of *tahashim*”)? Because the verse states: *The length of each curtain shall be thirty cubits* (Exod. 26:8). What known animal could supply enough skin for a curtain of thirty cubits? It must, indeed, have been a miraculous creation, which disappeared (immediately after it was created).

footnotes:
⁹ The authorities were undecided as to whether it was a domesticated animal or a wild beast. See Shabbat 28b.