Beyt Tikkun

Kabbalat Shabbat with Community Shabbat
2025-02-28 18:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
We are excited to invite you to an in-person Kabbalat Shabbat dinner in collaboration with Community Shabbat. Community Shabbat is a place to come together to sing, pray, and eat in a way that is aligned with Beyt Tikkun’s values of inclusivity, collaboration, spirituality, Judaism beyond Zionism, anti-racism, and anti-capitalism. Rabbi Cat Zavis and Kayla Pollak (of Community Shabbat) will co-lead a spiritually and politically infused service. We hope you will stay for a delicious vegan, gluten-free potluck dinner. All are welcome and invited. Details: Friday, February 28, 6-9pm Location: Home in North Berkeley, address sent following registration Please bring: A vegan, gluten free dish to share for 20 people. Register here. We hope to see you there! ​
Access info:

The house is on a medium-sized hill. There are two steps up to the front door. We will have chairs of different sizes, both with and without arms.
COVID info: KN95/N95 masks are required. Please take a rapid test before coming and stay home if you are sick.

Shabbat services and Torah study | Mishpatim
2025-02-22 09:30 - 12:30
Shabbat Services and & Torah Study: Mishpatim
Saturday, February 22nd
Emeryville, CA & online
9:30am Shabbat service // 10:30am Torah study
Register Here
You can join us either in person or on Zoom for Shabbat services and Torah study. If you are in the Bay Area, we’d love to have you join us in person. After Torah study, we enjoy a vegetarian potluck meal together and have an opportunity to deepen our connection with one another. If you are able, please bring a vegetarian dish to share with others.
To obtain the Zoom link to join us online or the address where we meet in person (centrally located in Emeryville, only a short walk from the MacArthur Bart Station), please register here. Feel free to invite others as well by forwarding this email or link.
We begin our Shabbat service at 9:30am PT with meaningful prayers, balancing the awe of being alive with the call in our tradition for radical transformation of our world.
Then we turn to our Torah study at 10:30am PT. This week we begin reading the book of Exodus, the foundational text of liberation theology, the seeds of which were planted in the book of Genesis. This parsha once again begins with naming all the sons of Israel (i.e., Jacob) who came to Egypt. The Israelites, we are told, are fertile and multiple in the land. Pharaoh expresses fear that they will become stronger than the Egyptians and join in solidarity with others and rise from the land.
The fear of the power of refugees to align with other oppressed and vulnerable peoples to challenge empire has a long history. Pharaoh, like modern tyrants today, chooses to respond to their presence and strength by stoking fear in the Egyptians and imposing slave masters over them to increase their oppression. We will reflect on the similarities in our Torah to what we can expect under a Trump administration and how Israel has and continues to respond to and treat Palestinians today.
Registration is FREE for both Zoom and in person participation.
Click here to register
We’d love to have you join us!
9:30 am Pacific Time (12:30 pm Eastern Time)Shabbat morning prayers and celebration of the universe
10:30 am Pacific Time (1:30 pm Eastern Time)Torah Study | Mishpatim Exodus 21:1–24:18
12:15 pm Pacific Time (3:15 pm Eastern Time)Kaddish, Kiddush, and vegetarian potluck for those able to join us in person!
​*Please save this link for information on upcoming Torah Study and Special Events
You can watch Rabbi Cat’s musings from last week and Beyt Tikkun’s Torah Study from the previous week
| Rabbi Cat’s Musings on parshat Yitro
| Torah study on parshat Beshalach
Shabbat Services and Torah Study are held at Rabbi Cat’s home, address will be provided once you register. She has a large, sweet golden retriever/labrador mixed breed dog. Masks are optional. Please don't come if you have any symptoms. Air filter provided. Windows can be opened if requested. There are 4 steps to enter the house. The house is one story. There are 4 steps out the backdoor to the backyard if we decide to go out there. There are couches, dining room chairs, and a floor for seating (along with pillows one can sit on on the floor). Please try to be scent-free.

Community Chit Chat with Rabbi Cat
2025-02-19 17:30 - 19:00
On theThe third Wednesday of each month, R’Cat will host a Zoom “Community Chit Chat with Rabbi Cat.” It’s an opportunity to visit together in community, ask questions, share celebrations, or anything else that moves you. It will be at 5:30pm PT. Click here to receive the Zoom link.

Hamze Awawde & Rabbi Cat Zavis in Conversation
2025-02-11 19:00
You’re invited to a powerful and timely conversation with Hamze Awawde, a Palestinian peace activist, and Rabbi Cat Zavis as they explore the past, present, and future realities of Palestine—and the possibilities for justice, reconciliation, and peace.
📅 Tuesday, February 11
📍 Lakeshore Baptist Church, 3534 Lakeshore Ave., Oakland
🕖 Doors open at 6:45 PM | Talk begins at 7:00 PM (PST)
🎥 Live Stream: bit.ly/3E2aKdX
About Hamze Awawde:
A lifelong advocate for peace and human dignity, Hamze Awawde is committed to amplifying Palestinian voices and fostering dialogue beyond cycles of violence. His latest initiative, the Center for Palestinian Renewal (CPR), is a groundbreaking think-and-do tank dedicated to empowering Palestinian perspectives and promoting citizen diplomacy.
Join us for an evening of deep discussion and hopeful vision-building. Whether in person or online, we hope you can be part of this essential conversation.
If planning on attending in person, you can just show up at the time of the event, no registration necessary.

Walk, Pray, Eat with Rabbi Cat
2025-02-11 08:00 - 09:00
On the second Tuesday of each month, Rabbi Cat will lead a morning Walk, Pray, Eat.
You can meet R’Cat in Emeryville, CA (she will also have her phone and do it on Zoom as well!) and join her (and her lovely dog Dodi!) for morning prayers while walking and if you want, you can stop and grab some food (along the way or at the end).
We will walk along the Emeryville Greenway, which is accessible to all people (flat, level, wheelchairs, walkers, strollers, etc.). Bring your dog if you want as well. We will meet at 8:00am PT at the park and leave for our walk at 8:10am.
The prayers will last about 30-45 minutes.
You can stay as long or short as you are able. We will have the prayers (in English and Hebrew transliteration) available on paper as well as online.

Register here

Tu B’Shvat Celebration: Shabbat, Torah Study, and Environmental Seder
2025-02-08 09:30 - 12:30
On Saturday, Feb. 8th at 9:30am, in addition to our regular Shabbat and Torah Study, we will be hosting our special Tu B’shvat Seder – the Jewish environmental holiday. We will begin with our morning celebration of the universe, study Torah, and then have a celebratory environmental seder. All with great teachings and music led by Rabbi Cat Zavis and Dr. Ami Goodman.
You can join us either in person or on Zoom for Shabbat services and Torah study. If you are in the Bay Area, we’d love to have you join us in person.
To obtain the Zoom link to join us online or the address where we meet in person (centrally located in Emeryville, only a short walk from the MacArthur Bart Station)
Please register here.
Feel free to invite others as well by forwarding this email or link.
We will use the Beyt Tikkun Tu B’shvat mahzor and follow the Chasidic path, coupled with the wisdom of tikkun olam.
The seder will involve enjoying various fruits, helping us connect with the beauty and bounty of our planet. If you join us on Zoom, we encourage you to get some of the relevant fruit and grape juice or wine (some red and white) so you can participate fully in the experience. If you join us in person, we will provide the fruits and juice. The tradition is to move from less permeable fruit to more permeable. All you need is one fruit for each of the following stages:

First, those with tough shells and soft edible inside (e.g., walnuts, coconuts, pomegranates, or melons).
Second, fruit with a soft outside but hard inside (e.g., peaches, dates, apricots, olives, cherries, dates, plums, etc.).
Third, fruit that is soft both on the outside and the inside (e.g., strawberries, figs, blueberries, pears, grapes, apples, etc.).
In the 4th stage, we will visualize a higher level of connection to the earth and the cosmos (no fruit needed!)

You only need one fruit for each of these stages. If you don’t get them, then just imagine them when we get to each stage.
And at each stage we also drink some grape juice or wine – ideally you’ll have white grape juice or wine and red wine or grape juice. Come and enjoy!
9:30 am PST: Shabbat celebration of the universe
10:30 am PST: Torah study: Beshalach – God continues to harden Pharaoh’s heart and sends Pharaoh and his army after the Hebrews. Exodus 13:17 (sefaria.org)
11:30 to 12:30 pm PST – Tu B’Shvat Environmental Seder.
You are invited to all or any segment you want.
Hope to see you there!
Rabbi Cat Zavis & the Beyt Tikkun Team
Please register here.
Shabbat Services and Torah Study are held at Rabbi Cat’s home, address will be provided once you register. She has a large, sweet golden retriever/labrador mixed breed dog. Masks are optional. Please don’t come if you have any symptoms. Air filter provided. Windows can be opened if requested. There are 4 steps to enter the house. The house is one story. There are 4 steps out the backdoor to the backyard if we decide to go out there. There are couches, dining room chairs, and a floor for seating (along with pillows one can sit on on the floor). Please try to be scent-free.
