by Jaclyn Schiff and Menachem Wecker

What's the bracha, blessing, to recite when seeing an ape? Is recreational hunting permitted? What is the only biblical reference to the hippopotamus?

According to Rabbi Natan Slifkin, better known as the Zoo Rabbi, the answers are: "m'shaneh ha'briyot" (he who forms different creations); no; and a metaphor God uses to taunt Job.

Slifkin addressed these and other questions Sunday during two tours of the National Zoo in the District. At the tour's first stop at the Great Ape House, Slifkin told the group of nearly 60 people how he came to abandon computer programming for rabbinical zoology. Quipping that his parents brought him to the zoo when he was 3 and returned to pick him up when he was 12, Slifkin - who admits to "a soft spot" for toads, fruit bats and killer whales - said people laughed at his desire to work with animals and told him, "Nice Jewish boys don't work in zoos!"

Thwarting others' recommendations that he program computers, Slifkin studied in yeshiva and became a rabbi - another no-no for nice Jewish boys. "It occurred to me one day to see what the Torah has to say about animals," he said in an interview. "I found a wealth of material, and I found that the zoo is a great place to teach it."

The National Zoo presents Jewish viewers with an "extraordinary" and rare invertebrate exhibit, including a Pacific giant octopus. So what is so Jewish about a cephalopod? Slifkin recounted a midrash, a legend, in which God sends an octopus to break down the Egyptians' houses when they barricade themselves against the plague of wild beasts.

After finding a biblical angle on octopi, the rest was easy. At the ape house on Sunday, Slifkin cited the Mishna comparing apes to men (apes, too, can carry impurity), and he used turtles that can live up to 200 years as a demonstration of the Jewish perspective on aging: "Don't take age for granted."

He used the emu and the capybara, "the largest rat in the world," to illustrate principles of kashrut, and the wild horse to explore the Torah's views on domestication.

Slifkin said that for the most part one can buy eggs in the store even if there's no kosher symbol. The reason is, he said, that a kosher egg is rounded on one end and "pointy" on the other (i.e., the ends aren't symmetrical).

The emu, though, produces eggs that are pointed on both ends, as opposed to the ostrich, which is rounded on both ends. Both are not kosher. Incidentally, Slifkin owns one of each of those two eggs.

As for the horses, the rabbi pointed out that we think of horses as domesticated, but to the Aztecs, the notion that the Spanish conqueror Cortes had been able to ride some 15 horses was mind-boggling. They thought he was a centaur. Slifkin then said that it's OK for Jews to domesticate animals, so long as there is a reason for it.

Not everyone agrees with Slifkin's Torah interpretations. His claim in his book last year, The Challenge of Creation, that talmudic rabbis made errors in scientific judgment led several influential Orthodox rabbis to ban the book.

That book was one of three that Isaac Moses, 27, brought with him on the tour, hoping Slifkin would sign it. A Baltimore resident, Moses said he had been aware of Slifkin's writing, but "after the ban, [his book] got more interesting."

Gene Hastings is also a fan of Slifkin's books. After picking up a copy of The Camel, the Hare, and the Hyrax about five years ago, Hastings, 54, became more interested in Jewish perspectives on animals. He and his wife, Carolyn, drove 4 1/2 hours from their home in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill to join Slifkin's tour, hoping to learn new insights that might not have made it into the books. "Some of it's new, some of it's reminders of what's in the books," he said of the tour. Nava Rosenberg, 9, of Silver Spring came on the tour with her parents, grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins. "I didn't know what to expect, but it's interesting," said Nava, whose favorite animals were the monkeys.

Her grandmother, Ginger Pinchot of Silver Spring's Kemp Mill, said, "This is a wonderful activity for the Nine Days, because it's educational." Pinchot heard about Slifkin's visit from Kemp Mill Synagogue, which arranged the day's first tour. She called the event "one of the most unique" that KMS has arranged. (Slifkin arranged the second one.)

To Dan Smokler, 28, of Los Angeles, Slifkin's tour was not only educational, but also a microcosm for the larger issues facing Orthodox Judaism.

"There is a tendency to recoil from scientific explanations" in the Orthodox world, he said. Smokler noted that despite Slifkin's haredi, fervently Orthodox credentials - the rabbi studied at the haredi Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem - other haredim exhibit "great fear and trepidation" toward his study of science. But Smokler pointed out that aside from the response to Slifkin's scientific theories, which he suggested was unfounded, the rabbi was simply getting Jews to come to the zoo, a favorite pastime for many families, especially the Orthodox.

"The frummiest thing to do on Sunday is going to the zoo," he said.