SPORTS
TORAH PORTION
Hit Men A Hit
Cold temperatures don't hold back
Motor City team.
Steve Stein
Special to The Jewish News
E
two out in the bottom of the seventh
inning to pull out the victory.
All the Hit Men play in the B'nai
B'rith Great Lakes Region softball
league. Most were from the Pisgah
Zeiger team that shared the regular-
season championship with Pisgah II
last summer. Playoff champion Pisgah
II also was represented on the Hit
Men, as were Brotherhood I and Zager
Stone.
Justin Fisher, Michael Geller,
Lyle Schaefer, Bruce Weberman,
Marc Weberman, Rosenberg and
Sherline were the Pisgah Zeiger
players on the Hit Men's roster.
Matt Brand, Michael Shanku
and Mudryk were from Pisgah
II, Jonathan Goldberg was
from Brotherhood I and Jeffrey
Weberman was from Zager Stone.
ven though the weather
wasn't what they expected
for a mid-winter trip to
Arizona (dipping into the 30s), the 12
players on the Pisgah Zeiger Motor
City Hit Men softball team returned
with warm feelings about the inau-
gural Valley of the Sun JCC Maccabi
Experience tournament in Scottsdale
last month.
"We had a great time out there. We'd
love to go back if they hold the tour-
nament again," said Rick Sherline,
who organized the team.
Besides playing seven games
in about 48 hours at picturesque
Horizon Park, the Hit Men enjoyed
time together off the diamond and
schmoozed with players from the
Hall Doors Open
other five teams over pizza and wings
Broadcaster Howard Cosell and
at a sports bar.
swimmer Mark Spitz head the 11-
"The guys on our team ate, played
member 2007 induction
cards and went to a
class for the National
casino together and
Jewish Sports Hall of
several saw friends
who live in the area,"
Fame & Museum in
Commack, N.Y.
Sherline said. "Even
Also on the list are
if we hadn't done
Senda Berenson, the
well in the tourna-
"mother of women's
ment, it would have
been a good trip
basketball," broadcaster
Bonnie Bernstein,
because of the cama-
photographer George
raderie."
Despite being the
Kalinsky, marathon
runner Deena Kastor,
only team from a
cold-weather state,
Special Olympian Craig
Ludin, bodybuilder
the Hit Men went 4-3 Lyle Schaefer s wings
Dan Lurie, NFL referee
and finished in third at a pitch
place behind the
Jerry Markbreit, bas-
Tri-City Crush and host Phoenix JCC
ketball player Lennie Rosenbluth
Bombers.
and high jumper Dwight Stones.
If a few of the inductees don't
The Hit Men were 3-2 in two days
of preliminary play, earning a berth in sound familiar, here's some back-
the four-team playoffs. After losing a
ground on three of them: Kalinsky
28-27 heartbreaker to the Bombers in
has been the official photographer for
the semifinals, the Hit Men regrouped
Madison Square Garden for 34 years;
for a 32-17 win over the Sin City
Lurie was the AAU's "Most Muscular
Sinners from Las Vegas in the third-
Man in America" from 1942-44; and
place game.
Rosenbluth led the University of
Danny Rosenberg and Al
North Carolina to a 32-0 record and
Mudryk of the Hit Men lived up
its first NCAA championship in 1957
to their team's name in the playoff
by averaging 27.6 points and 8.6
games. Rosenberg went 11-for-11 in
rebounds per game. I 1
the two contests and Mudryk belted
three home runs against the Bombers, Please send sports news to
who needed to score five runs with
sports@thejewishnews.com .
A Miracle And A Secret
Shabbat Shira,
Parshat Beshallach:
Exodus 13:17-17:16;
Judges 4:4-5:31.
W
ith the exodus from Egypt, ing it, the people asked, `Maan hu," or
Moshe enters the more
"What's that?"
difficult phase of his
Moshe informed the people that the
leadership. Until now, he had dealt only maan would be collected on a daily
with Pharaoh and his stubbornness.
basis. They were to consume each
Now, he must begin to deal with B'nai
day's ration on the day that it fell and
Yisrael and their demands.
were forbidden to hoard
We will deal with only
the food for the next day.
one of the complaints of
Thus, the maan served
the people and, in so doing,
as both a blessing and a
gain insight into the secret
lesson in faith. The people
of the afikoman.
were thus compelled to
The text states: "And
deny their every instinct
B'nai Yisrael said to [Moshe
to plan ahead, to save for
and Aharon],"Better had
an unpredictable future.
Rabbi Yigal Tsaidi
we died at the hand of God
Similarly, when we cel-
while in Egypt, where we
Special to the
ebrate the Exodus at the
Jewish News
sat at the pot of flesh and
Pesach seder, we take the
middle piece of matzah,
ate bread to contentment
... than your having brought us forth
divide it unevenly and store the larger
into this wilderness to kill the entire
portion for the afikoman.
congregation by starvation" (Exodus
Like our ancestors, Jews of every
generation save for the future. When
16:3, emphasis added).
God's response: "Behold I shall rain
the time comes to bring forth this
upon you bread from the heavens, and
afikoman, we eat every bit of it,
the nation will go out and pick its daily expressing not only our obedience
quota." (16:4)
to God, who commanded that the
The reader is puzzled by the for-
Passover offering be eaten in its
mer slaves' nostalgia. Flesh pots?
entirety, but also our faith that He will
Contentment? Does the text not
provide for our needs tomorrow and
the day after that as He did at the time
describe the slave experience only in
terms of bitter deprivation? Why was
of the maan. We consume the entire
afikoman, confidently facing our future
there no prior mention of the luxury
and reclining in the manner of those
that the people claim to recall? And
why does God seem to acquiesce to
who are truly free. I
their demands without even a word of
Dr. Yigal Tsaidi is educational director of
contradiction?
Yeshivat Akiva in Southfield.
Rabbi Moti Mon (Techelet Mordecai)
explains that in Egyptian custom,
slaves were fed each evening from a
Conversations
communal pot. The head of each fam-
• What is the "secret" of the
ily was given a voucher that entitled
afikoman? Why do we keep it
him to a portion of food that was doled
hidden until just before Birkat
out under the watchful eye of Egyptian
HaMazon (grace after meals)
overseers. The food was neither tasty
and then consume it com-
nor bountiful, but it was consistently
pletely?
there.
• "Buying in bulk," has
Moshe faced a daunting situation.
become a way of life for many
If at the end of the day a Jewish father
Americans — Jew and gentile
cannot provide food for his family, he
alike. How might the message
would prefer the meager rations of
of this article inspire the reader
bondage. Parents had no food to give
to re-evaluate this way of life?
their children.
• In what way does the order of
God validates this concern, promis-
the seder reflect upon the pro-
ing and miraculously delivering bread
totypical schedule of priorities
the very next morning. This bread
in a Jewish home?
was called maan because, upon see-
February 1. 2007
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