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source of Rashi's commentary mentioned by Natan Slifkin in Sacred Monsters (link google.books.com); additional info re identity of Keresh in Sacred Monsters; & "zemer"
The '''Keresh''' is the enormous [[deer]] of ''Be-Ila'i'', and it has but one horn.<ref>See [http://halakhah.com/pdf/kodoshim/Chullin.pdf Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Bavli), Seder ''Kodashim'', Tractate ''Chullin'', Folio 59b (''Chullin'' 59b)]. ''scroll down to page'' 192.
The '''Keresh''' is the enormous [[deer]] of ''Be-Ila'i'', and it has but one horn<ref>See [http://halakhah.com/pdf/kodoshim/Chullin.pdf Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Bavli), Seder ''Kodashim'', Tractate ''Chullin'', Folio 59b (''Chullin'' 59b)]. —''scroll down to page'' 192.
</ref> The hide of the deer of ''Be-Ila'i'' is
</ref> as black as dye.<ref>"horns black as dye"—Rashi's commentary on the Babylonian Talmud Tractate, [http://halakhah.com/pdf/nezikin/Baba_Bathra.pdf ''Bava Basra'' 16b / ''Bava Bathra'' 16b.] —halakhah.com —''scroll down to pages'' 51–53<br/>"Keren-Happuch because — so it was explained in the academy of Rabbi Shila — she had a complexion like the horn of a keresh. This explanation was laughed at in the West, [where it was pointed out that a complexion like] the horn of a keresh would be a blemish." page 51. <br/>The commentary reads: "Because it is blackish" and "This is according to the reading of Rashi, '''<big>ככורכמא דרשקא</big>'''. Tosafta, however, reads
sixteen [[cubit]]s long (24 feet).<ref>16 cubits = 288 inches, 24 feet, 7.3152 meters (one cubit = 18 inches = 0.4572 meters).</ref> Some of the Sages of the Talmud ([http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14240-tannaim-and-amoraim ''Tannaim'' and ''Amoraim'']) identify this creature as the legendary [[The Taḥash (legendary animal)|Taḥash]].<ref>[http://halakhah.com/shabbath/shabbath_28.html Babylonian Talmud, Seder ''Mo'ed'', Tractate ''Shabbath,'' Folio 28a PARTb (''Shab.'' 28ab)] —halakhah.com. <br/>"''Since there is the keresh, which is a species of beast, and it has only one horn, one can say that it [the tahash] is a kind of wild beast.''"</ref> It is associated with the Tigris, the giant lion of the same wild habitat. ''Be-Ila'i'' is an unknown forest of this name according to [[Rashi]], also according to [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0012_0_12445.html Lewysohn]<ref>Lewysohn, Yehudi Leib Ludwig (1858) [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0012_0_12445.html ''Zoologie des Talmuds'',] p. 70. —jewishvirtuallibrary.org</ref>. According to [http://www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/cajs/jastrow/01.html Jastrow] it refers to the mountains of interior [[Asia]].<ref>Jastrow, Marcus (1926) [http://tyndalearchive.com/tabs/jastrow ''Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Bavli and Midrashic Literature''] p. 520, column a, top. '''טגרס טגרוס''' —tyndalearchive.com —''click on letter'' <big>'''ט'''</big> Tet, ''at top of page image select'' next page ''until page'' 520 ''appears''. —" '''טגרוס ''': <small>m</small> (tigris, v. Sm. Ant. s. v.) ''tiger''. "</ref>
'''<big>ככוחלא דרשקא</big>''' pigment made from saffron’, which had a specially beautifying effect on the skin. In this case the name Keren-Happuch will mean, ‘the gloss of pigment’." page 53.
</ref> The hide of the ''keresh'' of ''Be-Ila'i'' is
sixteen [[cubit]]s long (24 feet).<ref>16 cubits = 288 inches, 24 feet, 7.3152 meters (one cubit = 18 inches = 0.4572 meters).</ref> Some of the Sages of the Talmud ([http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14240-tannaim-and-amoraim ''Tannaim'' and ''Amoraim'']) identify this creature as the legendary [[The Taḥash (legendary animal)|Taḥash]].<ref>[http://halakhah.com/shabbath/shabbath_28.html Babylonian Talmud, Seder ''Mo'ed'', Tractate ''Shabbath,'' Folio 28a PARTb (''Shab.'' 28ab)] —halakhah.com. <br/>"''Since there is the keresh, which is a species of beast, and it has only one horn, one can say that it [the tahash] is a kind of wild beast.''"</ref> It is associated with the Tigris, the giant lion of the same wild habitat. ''Be-Ila'i'' is an unknown forest of this name according to [[Rashi]],<ref name=Monsters>Rashi's commentary on the Talmud Tractate, ''Bava Basra'' 16b. ''See'' Natan Slifkin's [http://books.google.com/books?id=_1fdxxS26RYC&pg=PA70&lpg=PA70&dq=keresh&source=bl&ots=is3jt0Nth_&sig=UxuQQwF6flFLvz_TUmf4EuFo0do&hl=en&sa=X&ei=VvlTVKD4C423yATkhIHQAQ&ved=0CEgQ6AEwCTge#v=onepage&q=keresh&f=false ''Sacred Monsters: Mysterious and Mythological Creatures of Scripture, Talmud and Midrash'' Chapter One: Unicorns of Different Colors: "The ''Keresh''"; "Is the Unicorn a Multicorn?"; and "The Rhino-''Keres''" pp. 69-75]</ref> also according to [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0012_0_12445.html Lewysohn]<ref>Lewysohn, Yehudi Leib Ludwig (1858) [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0012_0_12445.html ''Zoologie des Talmuds'',] p. 70. —jewishvirtuallibrary.org</ref>. According to [http://www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/cajs/jastrow/01.html Jastrow] it refers to the mountains of interior [[Asia]].<ref>Jastrow, Marcus (1926) [http://tyndalearchive.com/tabs/jastrow ''Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Bavli and Midrashic Literature''] p. 520, column a, top. '''טגרס טגרוס''' —tyndalearchive.com —''click on letter'' <big>'''ט'''</big> Tet, ''at top of page image select'' next page ''until page'' 520 ''appears''. —" '''טגרוס ''': <small>m</small> (tigris, v. Sm. Ant. s. v.) ''tiger''. "</ref>
An awareness of ancient folklore having roots in prehistorical reality may have reasonably suggested to the Sages the actual existence of the enormous ''keresh''. Possible sightings and capture of what may have been a giant one-horned Eurasian rhinoceros (''[[Elasmotherium]]''), once native to the central Asian and European steppes, have been preserved in legends. The animal has anciently been called a "deer-like" beast with one big horn, a "big bull" with one horn on its head, and a giant "unicorn" with five colors.<ref>Five sources:
The ''keresh'' is mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud (''Yerushalmi'') ''Shabbos'' 2:3, in the Babylonian Talmud (''Talmud Bavli'') ''Shabbath'' 28b, ''Chullin'' 59b, ''Bava Basra'' 16b, and in the ''Midrash Koheles Rabbah'' 1:28. Rashi's commentary on ''Bava Basra'' 16b says the ''keresh'' has horns black as dye, and while there is no contradiction in saying that the horn of the keresh is as black as dye, some took the construction of this comment in its most mechanical literal sense to mean that it has a single horn. The ''keresh'' has been speculatively identified as possibly the [[giraffe]], and also possibly as the [[rhinoceros]]. But the keresh is said to be a [[Kosher|clean animal]], and the rhinoceros is an unclean animal. According to the Septuagint, and according to the rabbinical commentaries of Saadia Gaon, Rabbeinu Yonah and Radak, the giraffe is the <big>'''וָזָֽמֶר'''</big> ''zemer'' of [http://biblehub.com/multi/deuteronomy/14-5.htm Deuteronomy 14:5] — chamois, mountain sheep, camelopardalus, wild sheep.<ref name=Monsters/><ref>"According to the Septuagint" —See English and Greek text of [http://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/septuagint/chapter.asp?book=5&page=14 Septuagint ΔEϒTEPONOMION Deuteronomy 14:5]<br/>14:5 the stag, and doe, and pygarg, and wild goat, and '''camelopard'''.<br/>14:5 ἔλαφον καὶ δορκάδα καὶ πύγαργον, ὄρυγα καὶ '''καμηλοπάρδαλιν'''·<br/>See [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/i/t/x/x0514.htm#5 Masoretic Hebrew Text of Deuteronomy 14:5 (no vowels)] —<big>'''וזמר'''</big>— ''zemer''<br/>14:5<big> ה איל וצבי, ויחמור; ואקו ודישן, ותאו '''וזמר.'''</big></ref>
An awareness of ancient folklore having roots in [[Prehistory|prehistoric]] reality may have reasonably suggested to the Sages the actual existence of the enormous ''keresh''. Possible sightings and capture of what may have been a giant one-horned Eurasian rhinoceros (''[[Elasmotherium]]''), once native to the central Asian and European steppes, have been preserved in legends. The animal has anciently been called a "deer-like" beast with one big horn, a "big bull" with one horn on its head, and a giant "unicorn" with five colors.<ref>Five sources:
*Russell, James R. (2009). "From Zoroastrian Cosmology and Armenian heresiology to the Russian novel"
*Russell, James R. (2009). "From Zoroastrian Cosmology and Armenian heresiology to the Russian novel"
*Allison, Christine; Joristen-Pruschke, Anke; Wendtland, Antje. From Daēnā to Dîn: Religion, Kultur und Sprache in der iranischen Welt; Festschrift für Philip Kezenbroek, zum 60. Geburstag. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. pp. 141–208.
*Allison, Christine; Joristen-Pruschke, Anke; Wendtland, Antje. From Daēnā to Dîn: Religion, Kultur und Sprache in der iranischen Welt; Festschrift für Philip Kezenbroek, zum 60. Geburstag. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. pp. 141–208.