Bar Mitzvah Gift For Parents

Baseball For a Cause: Local Teen Hosts Charity Event

In the sixth and final playing of Daniel's Charity Baseball Game, Westfield High School senior Dan Berke helped raise more than $4,000 for a Kenilworth-based non-profit.

Over the years, the games have featured a few different match-ups, this time pitting the 12th-grade boys against their parents. The parents shocked the crowd, winning 7-3.

"It was unexpected because a lot of guys were a little rusty from having not played in a number of years, myself including," said Evan Berke, Dan's father. "I didn't think we'd win, we thought they'd run all over us, but we pulled it out and showed flashes of brilliance." 

"We thought we'd stick with ground balls, which we thought would work because they wouldn't be able to bend down," joked Jake Harris, a WHS senior. "But it turned out they fielded well and we couldn't come back." 

The loss didn't hurt too much, as everyone had more important interests. "It was a great day, a lot of money raised," said Harris, "a lot of fun with the parents and children bonding, it's nice to see."

"It's a lot of fun and it's for a good cause," said Brian Fritz, playing on the boys team for his third year. "It's great to hang out with your buddies and play a real game of baseball." 

The game, held annually at Tamaques Park, supports a unique charity each year. The 2011 edition raised money for Furniture Assist, a non-profit organization that donates used furniture to those in need. In addition to the game, fans joined in a 50/50 raffle; a silent auction featuring sports memorabilia, gift certificates and more. Food and beverages were donated by The Office Bar and Grill, Starbucks, Mario's Deli and other local vendors. 

Meg Berke, Dan's mom, says they raised $2,400 on game day. She expects the total to be around $4,400.

Mark Friedman, a long-time friend of the Berkes and one of Dan's former Little League coaches, has attended all six games. "The community that comes out and donates all the services and the food, it's great. That he was able to raise more than $20,000 over six years, I think that's fantastic.

Jewish Celebrations | Relic Nation

Jewish Celebrations   

      The Jewish calendar is a motley collection of triumphs and losses. During the year, we mark certain days of grief and lament tragic events in history, like the ninth of Av and seventeenth of Tammuz, and we also have many Jewish celebrations including the different holidays, bar mitzvahs, weddings, briss and more. The different Jewish celebrations are a real cause for celebration: every couple getting married, every boy turning thirteen years of age, every eight-day old baby joining the covenant of Abraham, every Passover we celebrate our release from bondage by God- these and many more all indicate that the Jewish people are still very much alive, we still keep God’s Torah and there is still almost tangible hope for a much better future.

     The first commandment we every received was to remove the removal of the foreskin on eight day old babies in a ritual called briss, or brit milah. Surely, the commandment to procreate and fill the earth is mentioned first in the Torah, but that commandment was directed at the entire world; the mitzvah of briss, however, was directed only at the Jewish people.

     Being the first Jewish celebration in Jewish men’s lives, the briss is not just an arbitrary age. We see today more and more how science is “finding” truths that the Torah has known all along, since the creation of the earth. For example, a recent medical finding proves that the highest level of blood clotting exists in eight day old babies, which is the age of the briss! While surely there are many more reasons as to God’s choosing this Jewish celebration on the eighth day, we see today that more and more things that used to seem inscrutable are being medically proven.

     Another famous Jewish celebrations are bar and bat mitzvah. From the age of twelve for girls and thirteen for boys, they are considered adults, according to Jewish law. This means that they are obligated to keep all the commandments that Jewish men and women are obligated to. For this reason, during these extremely important times, they are called bat and bar mitzvah- son and daughter of a mitzvah.

Cutting for Stone

Water for elephants, a novel

The Case for Christ, A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus

Looking for Alaska

Man's Search for Meaning