Hide When You Contribute

Why is the tail of the goat uncovered and the tail of the sheep covered? Those whose hair is used to cover us, have their tail covered. Those which we do not use to cover us, are uncovered.

Various Rabbis

Kislev 27 5779

Gemara: Why is the tail of the goat uncovered and the tail of the sheep covered? Those whose hair is used to cover us, have their tail covered. Those which we do not use to cover us, are uncovered.

Ein Ayah: A shepherd, one who has the opportunity to elevate his thoughts like the biblical Hevel, should look at the property he has extracted from animals. First, he should look at the ethical element of his shepherding. He has a flock of sheep that he uses to cover the nakedness of mankind.

The instinct to cover himself is part of man’s creation, and Hashem provides him with the ability to keep himself in that form. The gemara mentions that the benefit that one species receives from another should be returned to the one who gave. Indeed all of creation is intermingled so that the lot of all of creation is often advanced as a whole. There need not be war in between the species but a relationship of strength and peace.

Only those whom we do not use their hair to cover (the goat, whose hair is used for sackcloth, which is beneath our dignity to wear) because we are on a higher spiritual level, come with a sign that they do not contribute as fully to mankind. This sign is put in the animals who overall provide wealth for man, sheep and goats, who are called ashtarot (see Devarim 7:13), which hints that they make their owner rich (ashir).

Ein Ayah