The Mystery of the Tachash: Was the Tabernacle’s Colorful Creature Really a Giraffe?

The Talmud (Shabbat 28b) describes the Tachash — the animal whose skins were used to cover the Tabernacle, as a vividly colored, multi-hued creature that “rejoiced and took pride in its colors.” It was a variegated animal, similar to what the Sages called Tela Ilan, a species known in their time (some identify it with the Nachash or serpent-like Gachon).

However, the Tachash could not have been the same as Tela Ilan, because it was a kosher animal, and the materials used for the Tabernacle came only from pure species.

A Unique Creation — “A Being of Its Own”

The Gemara explains that the Tachash was “a unique creature of its own kind,” uncertain whether to be classified as a wild animal or domesticated, but undoubtedly pure and possessing the signs of kashrut. It had a single horn on its forehead, appeared only in the time of Moshe, and then disappeared from the world.

The Midrash Tanchuma adds: “It was a large, pure animal, and it had a horn in its forehead. Why were its skins used? Because the covering of the Tabernacle measured thirty cubits in length — and who could provide such a vast hide?”

Thus, many commentators concluded that the Tachash was a miraculous creature, created solely for this purpose and then hidden away.

Not Hidden — Just Rare

Rabbi Yonatan Eybeschütz, in his commentary Kreiti U’Pleiti on Yoreh De’ah, offers a more practical interpretation.

He explains that the word “hidden” (nignaz) does not necessarily mean it was taken out of existence — like the Leviathan reserved for the future, but rather that it was not commonly found among humans, dwelling instead in remote forests or open fields.

According to this, the Tachash may have been one of the kosher animals listed in the Torah under a different name — perhaps the Zemer, and the Torah mentioned its purity in case it would be found again, as it was during the building of the Tabernacle.

The Zemer — Could It Be the Giraffe?

Rabbi Saadiah Gaon identifies the Zemer with the giraffe.

In ancient times, giraffes were virtually unknown in the Middle East. They lived mainly in tropical regions near the equator and could not survive elsewhere due to lack of suitable vegetation. Today, of course, they are bred in zoos, where their tall feeding structures are replicated — but in biblical times they would have been extraordinary, exotic, and unseen.

It is possible, Rabbi Eybeschütz suggests, that by divine providence, a herd of giraffes wandered into the Sinai wilderness — contrary to their natural instincts, so that Moshe could obtain the enormous hides required for the Tabernacle’s outer covering.

A giraffe can reach a height of about fifteen cubits (roughly seven meters), allowing a single hide to stretch double that length, making it ideal for the massive 30-cubit covering described in the Torah — beautifully patterned and multicolored.

A Vision Remembered Through the Ages

For generations, the people of Israel remembered the magnificent sight of the Tachash skins — shimmering, variegated hides covering the sacred dwelling, and the mysterious creature that bore them.

They also recalled that the giraffe, too, has a single horn-like ossicone at the center of its head — a small but striking feature that fits the Talmudic description.

And so, when the modern world rediscovered the giraffe centuries later, many saw in it a familiar echo — a living reminder of the wondrous animal that once served in the building of the Tabernacle in the desert.