TORAH PORTION

SPORTS

Rebuilding Year

The Torah's Treehouse

Bloomfield Unified shows
its hockey potential.

Shabbat Terumah:
Exodus 25:1-27:19;
I Kings 5:26-6:13.

Steve Stein
Special to the Jewish News

All three are excited about the
Chargers' future. "We'll be better next
year when everybody is used to the sys-
tem," said Haron. Hertz said, "It helps to
see a lot of the kids on your team in
school every day." Added Werner, "We're
developing a game-winning mentality:'
Among Bloomfield's assistant coach-
es are former Berkley High standouts
Bryan Fenster, 24, and Devin Shencopp,
22, Marshall Shencopp's son. Said
Fenster, "It's been difficult for the veter-
an guys here because of all the coaching
turnover, but they're working hard and
learning from their mistakes."
Devin Shencopp made hockey news

t may not be apparent in the victory
column, but the Bloomfield Unified
high school hockey team isn't on
thin ice anymore.
First-year coach Marshall Shencopp
says it's been a productive season for
the Chargers, who were 6-13-1 last
week. Shencopp is the third coach in
five years for Bloomfield, which is made
up of players from Andover and Lahser.
"We're making strides in creating a
new environment on the team. There's
focus and discipline, and we're having
fun," Shencopp said. "I
love teaching, compet-
ing, and seeing the
smiles on the kids' faces
when they do something
they didn't think they
can do:'
Among the 17 smiling
players on the Bloomfield
roster are senior forward
Chad Schwalb from
Andover, junior goalie
Bloomfield Unified's Marshall Shencopp, Seth Haron, Brent
Jake Clark from Lahser,
Hertz, Bryan Fenster, Jake Clark and Devin Shencopp
and sophomores Seth
when he left the nationally renowned
Haron, Brent Hertz and Jeremy Werner
HoneyBaked AAA travel program to
from Andover. Haron, Hertz and
Werner are the lone sophomores on the play for Berkley as a junior and senior.
He was a Division 2 All-State honorable
team. There also are two juniors and a
mention choice in 2001.
dozen seniors.
"I'm enjoying working with the
Clark said his love of hockey kept
Bloomfield kids. It's been a great expe-
him from leaving the squad after his
rience for me because I hOpe to be a
sophomore year. He's happy he stayed
teacher someday," said Shencopp, an
on board. "We're much more organized,
Oakland University junior.
focused and hockey-oriented;' Clark
said. "Now, hockey is more of a sport
Bear-Able
than an after-school activity. We have a
Eli Weiner scored eight points and
drive to achieve something."
grabbed
seven rebounds in helping
Schwalb, in his third year on the
the
Berkley
High boys basketball team
team, agrees with Clark's assessment.
defeat
Farmington
46-34 and clinch at
"We're more business-like, more
least
a
tie
for
the
Oakland
Activities
focused, and taking everything more
.
Association
Division
IV
champi-
seriously," Schwalb said.
onship.
The
win
gave
the
Bears
a
9-0
Clark is excited about Bloomfield's
record
in
OAA
Division
IV.
They
were
young talent, specifically the three
15-2 overall.
sophomores. "This team is going to
In an earlier 84-57 drubbing of
win. It's too bad I probably won't be
Birmingham
Seaholm, Weiner led
around for the pinnacle he said.
Berkley
with
22 points and Matt
Haron, Hertz and Werner left travel
Weitzman
added
10.
hockey to join Bloomfield. Defensemen
Hertz and Werner played on the same
Please send sports news to
Detroit Skating Club-based USA Eagles
sports@thejewishnews.corn.
team for four years. Haron is a forward.

I

❑

D

in heaven, like the acacia planks on
riving north from Eilat
earth, are standing,"omdim." In this
through the Aravah region
way,
the tabernacle is viewed as a
recently, I admired the aca-
microcosm,
an earthly approxima-
cia trees that dot its rocky land-
tion
of
heaven.
scape. Acacia trees look quite unusu-
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai also
al, like umbrellas stuck in the sand.
teaches a broader principle
They provide welcome
with
his bold statement
shade for animals and
the mitzvot must
all
that
humans in what can be a
be
performed
"the way
rather harsh environment.
they
grow."
The
Torah and
Acacia trees (atzei shit-
mitzvot
are
not
meant
to
tim) also provided the
be
frozen
in
place
like
pet-
wood for our first national
rified
wood.
They
must
be
construction project, the
kept
pointed
in
the
direc-
tabernacle.
tion of growth, toward the
Since there are so few
heavens.
Rabbi
trees in this region of
The growth of Judaism
Daniel Nevins
wilderness, one might
must
be organic, continu-
Special to the
wonder how the acacia
ing
the
process of earlier
Jewish News
trees came to be abundant
generations.
The mitzvot
enough to build the taber-
are
intended
for
growth
of the
nacle and its sacred accessories. The
individual,
of
the
community,
and of
Midrash asks this very question and
the
world.
answers that our patriarch Jacob
The golden menorah was also
foresaw this need, and planted the
shaped
like a tree. With branches
trees centuries before the exodus. He
and
blossoms,
it stretched up from
further instructed his descendants
the
ground
toward
the sky, emitting
to take 'the wood with them as they
light
like
the
radiance
of the heav-
departed Egypt so that they would
ens.
The
tabernacle
in
the desert was
be able to build the tabernacle when
thus
no
mere
tent.
It
was
a tree
the command arrived. To plant a tree
house,
arranged
to
simulate
and
is to plan for the future.
stimulate
the
continued
growth
of a
If you have seen diagrams of the
people
in
partnership
with
God.
tabernacle, you may have noticed
This portion challenges us to
that it was not built like a log cabin,
ensure
that Judaism remains both
with the beams layered horizontally.
grounded
and dynamic for future
In verse 26:15, we read that the aca-
generations.
cia planks were omdim, standing
upright. The Talmud (Sukkah 55b)
Danny Nevins is a rabbi at Adat Shalom
teaches in the name of Rabbi
Synagogue in Farmington Hills.
Shimon bar Yochai that the planks
were to be arranged in their direc-
tion of growth, with the root side
below and the tips above. Actually,
he states that "all of the mitzvot can
be fulfilled only in the way they
Conversations
grow, as it says, 'acacia trees stand-
Think of a mitzvah which
ing; that they stand the way they
your family already per-
grow."
forms. Can you devise a
The Halachah derives from this
creative way to give it new
that the lulav must also be arranged
life and new meaning?
with the upper tips of each plant
facing upwards. Midrashic and mys-
tical traditions compare this verse to
Isaiah 6:2, which says that the angels

❑

March 2 • 2006

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