GOAT

The classification of the domesticated goat bred in Israel is disputed among scholars, some maintaining that it originates from the wild goat Capra hircus, hence the name of the domesticated goat as Capra hircus mambrica, others, that it originates from the wild Capra prisca, the name of the domesticated goat therefore being Capra prisca mambrica. The wild goat is apparently the akko mentioned as one of the permitted wild animals (Deut. 14:5). The goat of Ereẓ Israel has recurved horns, those of the he-goat being branched. Its bones have been found in excavations at megiddo and a drawing of it in excavations at gezer (dating from about 3,000 years ago). The goat has black hair (cf. Song 4:1), but a few have black hair with white or brown spots (cf. Gen. 30:32). This black hair may have symbolized sin, and for this reason it was chosen as a sin offering and for the scapegoat (see azazel ; Lev. 16:8ff.). The expression sa'ir (lit. "hairy") for a he-goat (ibid., 4:24) and se'irah for a she-goat (4:28) is connected with their long hair. The curtains of the Tabernacle were made of goat's hair, as were the black tents of the Bedouin – "the tents of Kedar" (Song 1:5). The she-goat is called ez, but izzim is also a general expression for the species, the kid being referred to as gedi izzim (Gen. 38:17) or seh izzim (Deut. 14:4); he-goats are called attudim (Num. 7:17) or teyashim (Gen. 30:35). The he-goat usually leads the flock and hence apparently the reference to it as "stately in going" (Prov. 30:29, 31). Another name for the he-goat is ẓafir (Dan. 8:5).   The importance of the goat lay in its flesh, that of the kid being particularly delicious (Gen. 27:9; 38:20; Judg. 13:15). Ancient peoples apparently boiled a kid in milk on idolatrous fertility festivals, the prohibition of seething "a kid in its mother's milk" (Ex. 23:19; 34:26; Deut. 14:21) being connected with this. From its threefold repetition, the sages deduced a general prohibition against eating meat with milk, as well as its concomitant laws (Kid. 57b). Goat's milk was widely used (cf. Prov. 27:27), being also regarded as a remedy for chest trouble. A baraita, however, tells of a pious man who reared a goat in his home for this purpose, but because he transgressed the prohibition of the sages against the breeding of goats, his colleagues rebuked him, calling the goat an "armed robber" (BK 80a), the goat being regarded as a robber since it jumps over fences and damages plants. A Greek inscription prohibiting the breeding of goats has been uncovered at Heracleas. According to the Mishnah (BK 7:7) "small cattle (goats and sheep) are not to be bred in Ereẓ Israel, but may be bred in Syria or in the deserts of Ereẓ Israel." After the destruction of the country's agriculture, especially following the Muslim conquest, goats were imported to Ereẓ Israel, and they increased in number. Some maintain that they were responsible for the erosion of the land by ruining the terraces, destroying the natural vegetation, and creating fissures on the slopes. The eroded soil was deposited in the valleys, blocking the flow of rivers to the sea and forming marshes such as those of the Valley of Jezreel, which were drained by Jews only in the present century. Even now goats, still kept in large numbers by the Bedouin, cause damage to Israel's natural woods by chewing the young shoots, thereby preventing them from growing to full height. In the 1940s, the Jewish settlers introduced into the country the white European goat, distinguished for its yield of milk. In the Diaspora, particularly in Eastern Europe, the Jews in the towns and villages raised goats so as to have an independent supply of milk. In popular Jewish folklore the goat is a well-known motif which finds expression in jokes ("the rabbi and the goat"), in folk songs ("the child and the goat," see Ḥad Gadya ), as also in poems and paintings (e.g. those of chagall ). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Dalman, Arbeit, 4 (1935), 171; 6 (1939), 186ff.; F.S. Bodenheimer, Animal and Man in Bible Lands (1960), 224, index, S.V. Capra; Feliks, in: Teva va-Areẓ, 7 (1964/65), 330–7. ADD BIBLIOGRAPHY: Feliks, Ha-Ẓome'aḥ, 260. (Jehuda Feliks)