“He teaches us from the animals of the land, and from the birds of the Heavens He makes us wise.” (Job 35:11)
This cryptic verse is explained in the Babylonian Talmud: “Rabbi said: Had the Bible not been given to us, we would have learned modesty from the cat, [the prohibition of] theft from the ant, and [the prohibition of] forbidden relationships from the dove” (Talmud, Eruvin 100b).
Every living creature embodies a trait for us to emulate. This is not to say, of course, that the cat consciously practices modesty or that the ant understands the evil of theft. Rather, each animal, as the embodiment of a particular trait, is something that we can use as a living example from which to learn.
For example, the Talmud states, “Be as brazen as a leopard, as light as an eagle, as swift as a gazelle, and as mighty as a lion to fulfill the will of your Father in Heaven.” The power of the lion surely cannot refer to the lion's raw physical strength, as the Talmud is not teaching us to engage in bodybuilding. Rather, the Talmud is working with its own definition of true power being the power of self-control. Like all big cats, lions are predators and therefore have aggressive natures. An aggressive instinct makes it difficult to get along even with members of one's own species, which is why tigers, leopards and pumas all lead solitary lives. It is only the lion that somehow controls this aggression and lives in groups. This is the power of the lion that we are enjoined to emulate.
Here we see how the Torah and zoology enhance each other, and how the Zoo Torah program provides a stimulating and sophisticated understanding of the animal kingdom that makes people look at zoos with newfound appreciation.
An invaluable tool for such education is Perek Shirah. This ancient Midrash lists various elements of the natural world, including many animals and birds, attaching a verse from the Bible to each. The verse alludes to the lesson of philosophy or ethics that the creature teaches us, and shows the animal kingdom to be a living, breathing manifestation of the lessons of the Bible. Perek Shirah itself is highly cryptic, but various commentaries have been written on it over the last few centuries. A lengthy English elucidation of Perek Shirah is soon to be published by Targum Press under the title Nature's Song, and parts of this are now incorporated in the zoo tour.
For example, the agur, which is the crane, a large bird similar to a stork, sings, “Praise God with the lyre, make music for Him with the ten-stringed harp” (Psalms 33:2). Unlike other birds, cranes have terrible voices. But although they cannot sing musically, they clatter the mandible of their beaks together like maracas. They thereby allude to the theme of the verse, which speaks of praising God with musical instruments rather than song. The message is that we need not all be the same, but rather we all have our own unique talents and abilities which we should develop for serving God.