Thanks very much to all who offered advice on this. :-)
Unfortunately openSUSE is somewhat out of sync not just with git but in
libraries necessary to install the latest version (libcrypto.so.4,
libssl.so.4). The openssl (0.9.7g-2.4) and openssl-devel (0.9.7g-2)
packages don't contain these but rather contain libcrypto.so.0.9.7 and
libssl.0.9.7. Just in case it's important to future git development.
Best wishes & thanks again,
-- Joe