One
who disregards the truth of Midrash is a heretic; one who regards Midrash as
literally true is a fool! 

Thinking in
Rosh Hodesh Shabbat prayers  

שֶׁתַּעֲלֵנוּ בְשִׂמְחָה
לְאַרְצֵנוּ וְתִטָּעֵנוּ בִּגְבוּלֵנוּ, וְשָׁם נַעֲשֶׂה לפָנֶיךָ אֶת
קָרְבְּנוֹת חוֹבוֹתֵינוּ, תְּמִידִים כְּסִדְרָם וּמוּסָפִים כְּהִלְכָתָם. אֶת
מוּסְפֵי יוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת הַזֶּה, וְיוֹם רֹאשׁ הַחֹדֶשׁ הַזֶּה, נַעֲשֶׂה
וְנַקְרִיב לְפָנֶיךָ בְּאַהֲבָה כְּמִצְוַת רְצוֹנָךְ 

Look at two
concepts 

Mishkan . Mikdash 

We mourn loss 

But do we
understand what we lost ? 

I would like to
discuss two concepts  

Access  

Balance  

And, Do I make
a difference  

And one other
idea, I would like you to think about in light of current events and what the
Mikdash and even the remnant the Kotel HaMaarivi means  

The Beis Hamikdash was meant to
serve Goyim as well as Jews, as the pasuk states, ki beti bet tefila yikarei
lechol ha’amim; My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations
(Yeshaya 56:7).  

This sentiment was expressed by
Shlomoh Hamelech in his public prayer whereby he dedicated the Beis Hamikdash,
'…and also to the gentile who is not from Your people Israel and who comes
for the sake of Your Name from a distant land. When they will hear of Your
great Name, Your powerful hand and Your outstretched arm and come to pray in
this house,  

You will hear from Heaven, the
place of Your abode, and do whatever the gentile requests of You, so that all
the nations of the Earth will know Your Name and fear You (Melachim I 8:41-
43). 

I learned from my Rabbi that
based on this when B’Y come to pray, sometimes the answer is no, but because of
King Solomon’s prayer when a goy comes and cries out to Hashem, then Heavens
heeds his plea.  

We’ll come back to this at the
end  

Also noted I
would like to speak about  

Unicorns  

Chantelle very
into unicorns 

Ketuba Unicorn
and Lion  

40 some odd
years ago 

Wrote Short
story in Rhyme  

Chantelle
illustrated it  

A couple of
years ago, our youngest Mariyah edited it and turned it into a small book  

Little Kids all
into unicorns  

This week we
read  

ב דַּבֵּר אֶל-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, וְיִקְחוּ-לִי
תְּרוּמָה: מֵאֵת כָּל-אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר יִדְּבֶנּוּ לִבּוֹ, תִּקְחוּ
אֶת-תְּרוּמָתִי. 

2. 'Speak to the children of Israel, and
have them take for Me an offering; from every person whose heart inspires him
to generosity, you shall take My offering. 

Among the various items used to
build the Mishkan were the tachash skins that were used as the outer covering
of the Mishkan as well as a slipcover for the vessels of the Mishkan while
traveling through the desert. 

How do we
define Tachash? 

The Gemara offers three
answers: 

1. Rav Yehuda says: “It was taynin,
(a violet color) and named for its dye.” 

2. Rav Nechemiah said: “It was galaktinin. 

3. The Rabbi's said: “It was a
clean [kosher] animal, and it lived in the wilderness.” 

This third explanation fits
with that which Rav Eleazar bar Yose stated, R. Abbahu in the name of Rav
Shimon ben Lakish in the name of Rav Meir: The Holy One, blessed be He, created
a clean animal for Moses in the wilderness. Once [Moses] had constructed the mishkan
with it, it was hidden away. 

Rav Avon said it was called a Keresh. 

R. Hoshaya taught, It had [only] one horn.   

There is a parallel discussion in the Bavli (Shabbos 28a,b)
regarding the nature of the Tachash.  

There the Gemara quotes Rav Nechemiah who explains that that
the Tachash was a Kosher animal that had a skin with many colors.  

Rav Yosef explains that the
Targum (traditional Aramaic translation of the Torah) of the word Tachash is
Sasgona which is a conjunction of the words sas (rejoice) and gevanim (colors).
The Tachash is an animal that rejoices in its many colors. 

Like the Yerushalmi, the Bavli maintains that the Tachash had
a single horn on its forehead and it only existed in the times of Moshe so that
it could be used to serve as a covering for the Mishkan. After it had served
its purpose the Tachash was hidden away. 

Similarly, the Medrash Tanchuma (Terumah 6) tells us that the
Tachash was a large wild kosher animal that had a single horn, its skin was
made up of six colors (The Radak explains that sasgonna can be read as sheish
gavnim six colors), and its length was 30 amot
(nearly 50 feet long!). The Medrash also quotes Rav Nechemiah who says that the
Tachash was a miraculous creation, created specifically for the Mishkan and
then hidden away. 

The Gemara in Shabbos (28b) connects the single horn of the
Tachash to another animal that had a single horn. Upon being expelled from Gan
Eden (see Targum Yonasan ben Uziel Bereishis 8:20) Adam brought a sacrifice of
an animal with a single horn – some suggest that the skin was preserved for the
Mishkan.  

We’ll come back to this later
to try to understand the connection with balance  

(Yalkut Shimoni II,
688) records a fascinating story in which the majestic re’em possibly unicorn
lifts David up into the clouds: 

David was once walking in the
wilderness and climbed upon a hill—which turned out to be, not a hill, but the
back of the massive re’em. The re’em raised David up to the clouds (either
because it was so big when it stood up, or perhaps because it had wings and
took off). David prayed to God to save him 

The Alshich HaKadosh (Toras
Moshe, Shemos 26:14) connects the Tachash to the coming of Mashiach. There are
two ways Mashiach can arrive; in the proper time (in the normal process of the
world) or אחישנה, swiftly (see Yeshaya 60:22, Sanhedrin 98b). The word אחישנה
shares the same root as the word Tachash. 

The Arizal (Eitz Chaim 49:3)
says that the Tachash is the spark of holiness in Kellipas Noga. With this in
mind we can see that the Mishkan itself was inherently Kadosh (like the
Mitzvos) whereas the covering of the Mishkan represents the Kedusha that in
unleashed when we elevate the physical world (Kellipas Noga).