The Living Torah Museum
Hold on to your hats, this one is pretty bizarre
It is said that it was on the sixth day that God created all the animals on this Earth. It is a point of wonderment, certainly, that every creature from the smallest mite to the giant blue whale and all the ways that they are so similar and very, very different could all be created in a single day, but that’s the miracle of God for you I suppose. Several millions of days have passed since that sixth day and an inspired mind decided to open a space dedicated to celebrating all of those varied and wonderful animals.
The Living Torah Museum opened in 2002 through the enterprising and visionary work of Rabbi Shaul Shimon Deutsch. It was primarily an exhibition space on artifacts from the time period when the Torah was written(ancient coins! Grecian helmets! Egyptian beauty products!) until 2008, when the space expanded to include Torah Animal World(which would eventually eclipse the artifacts space). Torah Animal World is Rabbi Deutsch’s collection of taxidermied animals, with the idea being that it is a celebration of all of the animals mentioned in the Torah— plus some extras just for fun. I’ll admit that I’ve not personally read the Torah but I feel pretty sure there’s no mention of penguins on its sacred pages.
I visited the Living Torah Museum on a Thursday evening with my friend Jessie and we were greeted at the door by the ineffable Rabbi Deutsch himself, who promptly led us upstairs to the first room.
And what a first room it was. Probably around a hundred taxidermied animals stared at us from every angle— mounted to the wall, roaring a silent roar from a pedestal, or just kind of crammed in any place that they could fit. There were animals of the jungle and the desert and the farmyard. There were fish and birds and tiny mammals I couldn’t even name.
“Please, walk around! Touch anything you’d like. Those lions are softer than you’d think,” Rabbi Deutsch instructed us.
“Really?” Jessie asked.
“Please!” He insisted. “This is a multi-sensory experience.”
We roamed around the room, gently running our hands over the fur and claw and horns of beasts of all shapes and sizes(Jessie a little more enthusiastically than me, I’ll admit.)
Rabbi Deutsch was highly knowledgable about every animal in the collection and palpably enthusiastic about taking us through it. He pointed out to us that you could tell the difference in ages of the lionesses by the subtle stripes on their back legs. He told us that when children come through(I think the Museum’s primary visitors are school groups from local yeshivas) they’re surprised to learn that zebras are just as often brown and white as they are black and white. He asked us to pick an animal horn from a pile on the floor and he trumpeted it for us.
The second room was much like the first— a different assortment of animals for us to closely examine and admire.
“Would you like to see the biggest bird’s egg in the world?” Deutsch asked us. “Take out your phones and google ‘elephant bird’. Incredible, right? One of those would have laid this egg right here.”
I got to hold an Indian Cobra and Jessie tried on a belt made of a snake whose species I did not record.
The artifacts section of the Living Torah Museum was beautifully laid out, but we didn’t spend as much time there as I would have liked— we really only took a glance around and paid for our tickets before being led to the next thing. It’s still a gorgeous collection.
The final room(“the big animal room”, per our host) was in a small separate building outside of the museum proper. It was, again, filled with taxidermied animals that we were encouraged to touch and interact with. A camel’s fur is a lot thicker than you’d think it would be.
This was a decidedly strange experience, probably the strangest museum I’ve been to so far. I’d love to write it off as just a weird space run by a crazy man in his house full of dead animals but there was something very sincere and kind about Rabbi Deutsch and his quest to run a hands-on learning experience unlike any other. I also in my research for this post found out that he runs one of the largest food pantries in Brooklyn and conducts a burial program for members of the community who can’t afford a full traditional funeral, so he’s really doing incredible work at a scope that anyone should be proud to achieve. I think maybe the moral of the story is: get out there! Follow your hearts desire/your weird niche little hobby as far as you can possibly take it! Help as many people as you can out along the way! Be like the Rabbi Shaul Shimon Deutsch!
ADMISSION: $10
GIFT SHOP: Yes
BATHROOM: Yes
WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE: No
UPCOMING MUSEUMS:
April 12 - The Frick Collection
April 20 - Madame Tussaud's
April 25 - Jewish Theological Seminary Library Gallery
May 2 - The Korea Society
Wow wow wow wow wow
If it were fiction, readers would think you whimsical. People are so creative, so good.