When we sit around the Passover table every year, we don’t normally ask ourselves whether this is the shank bone of a sheep or of a goat. According to the Torah, before the Israelites left Egypt, God commanded, “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year; you shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats.” (Exodus12:5)
The lamb (seh in Hebrew) simply means yearling, one that didn’t yet mate. Even though sheep and goats often roam together, and although they look quite similar and bleat the same way, there are significant differences between the two species, which set them clearly apart. The easiest way to distinguish between them is their external appearance. Sheep have wool; goats have hair. Sheep tails hang down whereas goat tails point upwards. A goat is the more slender of the two; a sheep is tubby.
But more importantly, each has a different character. For example, a sheep loves to graze on grass and clover; a goat is a typical browser, feeding on leaves, shrubs, and twigs. A sheep prefers to stay within its flock; goats are curious by nature and are quite independent. Another telling difference, perhaps reflective of the differing nature of the two species, is that sheep are entirely domesticated, while wild goats are found in abundance. This suggests that while both animals are beneficial to mankind, it is with a different symbiotic relationship.
Sheep win credit for being obedient and following their shepherd; goats should be accepted for their independence. After all, it was a curious goat, which strayed near a cliff on the western shore of the Dead Sea, bringing its young Bedouin shepherd, who chased it, to find the cave with the Dead Sea Scrolls in the spring of 1947 — the most important archeological find of all millennia. Interestingly, the parchments themselves are made from goatskin.
What kind of animal are you? When you are a grazing animal, like a sheep, you spend a lot of time with your head down, eating grass, sticking together with other sheep. When you are a browsing animal, like a goat, you often improvise your own trail.
The Torah knew to tell us that leading a people out of Egypt, the shepherd should be aware of the two types of people — those who would naturally follow Moses, and those who would follow Moses, but in their own pathfinder way. We may roam together because God created us this way — some of us sheep-like and some goat-like. Moreover, sometime we are sheep-like and sometime goat-like.
The Israelites had to bring a sheep or a goat to acknowledge both. With all the differences between them, they complete each other. When we sit around the Seder table, we all complete each other.
Wishing you and your family a happy month of Nissan, and a kosher and happy Pesach.

—Rabbi Gadi Capela

I wish to thank all the members of Congregation Tifereth Israel for giving me the opportunity to continue to serve you for another three years. May we all continue to complete each other.