An animal-loving rabbi seeks to reconcile science and Torah

by Johanna Ginsberg
NJJN Staff Writer

Rabbi Natan Slifkin uncoiled the python wrapped around his arm, and placed it carefully on a countertop far away from the audience — but close enough so that he had their attention.

The snake, he explained, is associated in the Torah with black magic, in part for the zig-zagging way it moves. "Moving in sideways manner, according to [Samson Raphael] Hirsch, is sorcery, which is not a Jewish idea. God wants a person to accomplish certain things in life to have gifts bestowed on them. Magic is a roundabout way of getting to a goal. God has a map charted out for you. Magic is sidestepping the stages God has set out for you."

And so Slifkin pursued his own goal, combining zoology and Jewish learning, in a day of Zoo Torah at the Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange on Sunday, June 26.