After catching the octopus and several other creatures at the beach in Malibu, I traveled north to Sacramento. I had been invited to speak at Knesset Israel, a congregation whose synagogue was firebombed and destroyed a few years ago by white supremacists. It is a wonderful community, and the Shabbaton was followed by a tour of the Sacramento Zoo. One of the things that I love about my work is the opportunity to see new zoos. Every zoo always has something unusual that I have never seen before. In this case, it was a species that I had seen many times before, but it was an extraordinary individual. You can see a picture of it at this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/zoorabbi/MysteryAnimal Can you guess what it is? (Note: It is NOT a sheitel!)

While in Sacramento, I returned to a place of which I had fond memories from my previous visit, five years ago. The Vision Quest Ranch trains wild animals for appearances in television and movies. It was here that I had met Josef the lion, who had since retired. On this trip, my goal was not just photographs but something more ambitious. With God's help, I hope to produce a series of Zoo Torah videos, and this was the first place at which I wanted to shoot some footage.

The first video shoot was with a seven-foot 250 pound alligator that I had wrestled on the previous occasion, named Handbag. Five trainers carried it out of its enclosure and taped its jaws closed, but the trainer issued a warning to me to stay clear of its head, which could swing at me and break my leg. Strangely, I hadn't received that warning on the previous occasion. I straddled its back and pulled its head up to safely immobilize it while talking to the camera about the symbolism of crocodilians in the book of Ezekiel. The alligator hissed, a deep throated growl emanating from its massive skull. For some reason I found it quite difficult to concentrate on my lines.

Next on the list was a bear. The trainer told me that it would be the same bear that I had met previously, Brandi. "Great," I replied. "She weighs about 350 pounds, right?" "Not exactly," said the trainer. "She's grown a little in the last few years, and she's now between 450 and 500 pounds." I gulped as he led the massive animal out of its cage and found it even more difficult to concentrate on my lines as she nosed around my face, trying to lick/eat me. It was at this point that I realized that this video work would take some getting used to.

Then it was time for the elephant. The ranch is home to Butch, Buffy and Lisa, three enormous African elephants. I did most of the filming with Lisa, taking a ride on her, feeding her, and putting my hand in her mouth to pat her huge tongue. The elephant is often mentioned in the Talmud in the same context as monkeys, partly due to their common feature of possessing great intelligence. I witnessed a demonstration of this intelligence when one of Lisa's trainers held a large shovel behind her, ordered Lisa to "Empty!" and collected the massive balls of dung that Lisa promptly excreted! I commented to the trainer that I will have to train my kids to do that too.

Finally, I had the opportunity to meet a creature that I had not met before, an ostrich called Ethel. The Talmud relates how Noah brought glass shards onto the Ark to feed the ostriches; these birds like eating anything sharp to help break up the food in their stomachs. Ethel was determined to eat the buttons on my jacket, but I grabbed her beak when she got too close and let her bite my fingers instead. It was a new jacket and it already had some bear spittle and elephant drool on it, and I wasn't about to let Ethel eat the buttons.

I returned to LA with great photos and video footage, a sample of which you can see on my homepage, www.zootorah.com. You can see the photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/zoorabbi (where you will also discover the identity of the mystery animal above). I sent my jacket to the dry-cleaners, fortunately with all the buttons still intact, but with the jacket liberally coated with bear and elephant residue. The jacket came back sparkling clean, as good as new – but minus several buttons.

****** Please include Menachem Osher ben Perel in your prayers for a speedy and complete recovery from illness.

=============== (c) Copyright by Rabbi Natan Slifkin 2006, zoorabbi@zootorah.com. All rights reserved. This essay may be further distributed free of charge, provided that the header and footer information is preserved intact.

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