Midrasch zu Tehillim 69:32

(Fol. 8) Our Rabbis were taught: When Adam the first man saw that each week the day became shortened, he started to cry, saying: "Woe is to me, perhaps this is because of my sin that the world becomes dark to me, and it might yet return to chaos and ruin. And this must be the [punishment of] death which was decreed upon me by Heaven." He sat fasting and praying for eight days. Thereafter, when he lived to see the solstice of the month of Tebeth, beholding that the days become longer, he understood that such is the cycle of the world. He thereupon established eight holidays. On the next year, he added the eight days in which he had fasted, as holidays. But while he established them to laud heaven, his descendants, however, made them holidays for the idols. Our Rabbis were taught: When Adam, the first man, saw on the first day of his creation, the sun set, he cried, saying: "Woe is to me, perhaps this is because of my sin that the world is to be returned to chaos. And this must be the [punishment of] death which was decreed upon me by Heaven." He wept all night, and Eve did the same opposite him. However, when dawn appeared, he understood that such was the order of the world. He arose and sacrificed an ox, whose horns preceded its hoofs (was born full-grown) as it is said (Ps. 69, 32) And it shall please the Lord better than a bullock that has horns and hoofs. (Fol. 9) At the college of Elijah it was taught: The world will continue for six thousand years, the first two thousand of which were a chaos (Tohu, without the Torah), the second two thousand were of Torah, and the third two thousand are the days of the Messiah, and because of our sins many years of these have elapsed [and still he has not come]. Let us see from what time are the two thousand of Torah counted? Shall we assume it to be the time when the Torah was given to Israel? Two thousand years have not elapsed as yet; for if you will go over carefully the years of Tohu, you will find that they were more than two thousand. We must therefore say [that it begins] from the time metioned: (Gen. 7, 5) And the persons that they had obtained in Charan. And it is known by tradition that Abraham was then fifty-two years of age. And from his fifty-second year until the Torah was given, four hundred and forty-eight years elapsed, and these years will complete the number of two thousand which were lacking at the time when the Tanna taught concerning the two thousand years of wisdom.

(Fol. 28b) What remains of the discussion regarding the so-called badger (Tachash) which existed in the days of Moses? R. Elaya in the name of R. Simon b. Lakish said: "R Meier was wont to say that 'The badger which existed in the days of Moses was a creation of its own kind, and the sages were not able to decide whether it belonged to the domestic species or to the wild animal species; it had but one horn on its forehead; it was assigned at that time to Moses, who made the covering for the Tabernacle of its skin; after that it disappeared.' Since he says that it had one horn on its forehead, we infer that it was a levitically clean species, for R. Juda said: "The ox which Adam, the first man sacrificed, had but one horn on its forehead, as it is written (Ps. 69. 32.) And this will please the Lord better than an ox or bullock having horns and cloven hoofs.' " Behold! the word used is Makrin (horns)! R. Nachman b. Isaac said, Although we read Makrin, (horns) the word really written is Makren, (horn, the singular) [Hence we learn that the one-horned beast is of the clean species]. Let us also decide from the same source that the badger was of the cattle species? [For it says. An ox or bull having a horn]. Since there is in existence the Keresh (antelope) which is of the animal species and has but one horn, so I can say, that the Tachash was the very animal called Keresh.

(Fol. 60) R. Juda said: "The ox which Adam, the first man, sacrificed, had but one horn on its forehead, as it is said (Ps. 69, 32) And this will please the Lord better than an ox or bullock having horns and cloven hoofs." Behold! The word used is Makrin (horns) in plural! [Hence it had two horns.] Said R. Nachman: "Although we read Makrin (horns) the word is really written Makren (horn, the singular)." R. Juda said: "The ox which Adam, the first man, sacrificed, got its horns before it got its cloven hoofs, as it is said, And this will please the Lord better than an ox or bullock having horns and cloven hoofs, i.e., first horns then cloven hoofs. This will support R. Joshua b. Levi who said that all the works (animals) of creation, were created in their full-grown feature, by their full consent, by their own [choice of] shape, as it is said (Gen. 2, 1) And the heaven and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. Do not read Tzeba'am (the host), but read it Tzib'yonam (their taste).