Debbie Rich

During her drash on parshat Bereshit, Susan Laemelle suggested Minyan members select a parsha that has a verse or line that resonates with them, and deliver a drash about it.

I’m pretty sure there weren’t a lot of takers for parshat Pekudey. A rabbi in New Orleans started a Pekudey drash by saying:

“Ordinarily this portion is linked to the preceding portion. It is tough enough to preach on this less than homiletically rich portion when it is double. This year, because it is a leap year with an added month of Adar II, the portion is stretched over two weeks, so what should I preach?”

The seeming lack of interesting issues guarantees a brief drash. Additionally, my mother encouraged my siblings and me to make our point quickly, and since I observed her yartzeit this past week, I will honor her memory by keeping this short.

Parshat Pekudey is filled with information regarding the materials and construction details of the mishkan. The source of the materials interests me. The gold, silver, jewels, and yarns and threads are referenced earlier in Shemot. Chapter 11 relates that Adonai told Moses: “Tell the people to borrow, each man from his neighbor, and each woman from hers, objects of silver and gold”. Chapter 12 states: “The Israelites had done Moses’ bidding and borrowed from the Egyptians gold and silver and clothing”.

Another material mentioned is tanned ramskins. These are referred to in Shemot 12, when following the 10^th plague, Pharoah finally says to Moses and Aaron, “Take also your flocks and herds, and begone”.

Chapter 39:34 mentions another material which is more unusual and is the specific reason I selected parshat Pekudey. The material is called “ohrot tahashim”, which is translated by Samson Raphael Hirsch as tahash skins. More helpfuk are translations according to Rashi, in which it means seal skins; the Interpreter’s Bible, in which it means badger skins; and the JPS Bible in which it means dolphin skins.

I have also learned that another interpretation says the skins were not from a tahash, but from a keresh, which is described as a large animal with one horn on its forehead - in other words, a unicorn.

Notwithstanding this mythical reference, it doesn’t take a zoologist to know that seals, badgers and dolphins are not desert dwelling creatures. So if the wandering takes place in the wilderness or desert, where did this particular material come from?

The Etz Chayim Chumash helps provide an answer. Located in the back of the Chumash is a series of maps. If you check the map that is 2 pages after page 1512, you’ll see two very thin red lines that illustrate, respectively, two exodus routes. The one toward the top of the page represents a possible northern exodus route, which goes nowhere near any bodies of water. Badgers, which are found in tropical forests, plains, woodlands, mountains, and passes in Asia, Europe, and North America (aka Wisconsin), may have migrated to this area. However, their prickly fur, which was used for shaving brush bristles, doesn’t jibe with the other rich materials used in the mishkan.

The second route illustrated on the maps is labeled the traditional exodus route, and it stays close to the Gulf of Suez before turning inland to Mt. Sinai, and then nears the coast again by the Gulf of Aqaba.

Species of dolphins and seals are indigenous to the Mediterranean area. Colonies of Mediterranean monk seals used to live in both present-day Egypt and Israel. Dolphin skins, while potentially available, probably weren’t very attractive, and again, aesthetically, wouldn’t mesh with the other mishkan materials. Seals have traditionally been used to provide food, oils, and clothing. The fur has a nice sheen, and would be a nice contrast to the tanned ramskins on the mishkan.

Whether tahashim are actually dolphin skins, seal skins or unicorn skins is fun to speculate about. But what is important is that the mishkan provided shelter for the Ark, which contained two tablets of stone. And it is the content of these tablets, and not the materials of the mishkan, that brings us together.