Rav Shlomo Kluger ZT”L…….that tzaddikim care more about their animals than their own bodies.

(33,17) “And Ya’akov travelled to Succos, and he built for himself a house and for his livestock he made shelters (succos). Therefore he called the name of the place Succos.”

Since Ya’akov built for himself a house and shelters for his livestock, why did he name the place specifically after the structures which he built for his livestock and not after the structure which he built for himself?

It seems to me that this is a proof to the teaching of the Midrash in parshas Chukas on the posuk “to die there, we and our livestock” (Bamidbar 20:4), that tzaddikim care more about their animals than their own bodies. That is, they take great care that their animals should not suffer in any way.

This is what we see here. Until now Ya’akov had been on the move and had not arrived at a settlement, and so had not been able to build any permanent structures, but now that they had come to a place where they could settle for a while he built a house for himself and shelters for his livestock. But “he called the name of the place Succos” because the comfort of his livestock was more important to him than his own personal comfort.