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Link to Memorial Lecture rsvp

Jump to "About the Speaker", Rabbi Elie Spitz

Shabbat: March 6 - 7, 2026
 18 Adar, 5786
Candle Lighting 5:28 PM
Havdalah: 6:37 pm
SHABBAT MORNING SERVICES: 9:30 AM

IN THE LARRY & ED SOGOLOW BEIT K'NESSET

Conducted by Rabbi J.B. Sacks

Parashat Ki Tisa
Shabbat Parah
 פָּרָשַׁת כִּי תִשָּׂא




Triennial Reading, First Year 
Exodus 30:11 -  31:17

2nd Scroll: Numbers 19:1 - 22
Haftarah: Ezekiel 36:16 - 28

*************************

Service Leaders
Birkhot HaShaḥar and P’sukei d’Zimrah: Mark Hailpern
Shaḥarit: Peter Reynolds
Torah Service: Peter Reynolds / Bill Amplo
Torah Reader: Rabbi J.B. Sacks
Gabbai'it Rishonah: Lonna Picker
Gabbai Sheni: Mark Hailpern
Haftarah: Rabbi Rachel Axelrad
Darshan: Rabbi J.B. Sacks
Musaf: Bill Amplo
Aliyah Coordinator: Bill Amplo
Announcements: Roni Spetalnick
Greeter: Bill Singer

 

Thank You to all of our service leaders !!

SECURITY SPONSORED BY


Ben and Heather Altman 
In memory of Heather's parents,
Rose & Max Granek
**************
KIDDUSH SPONSORED BY

Dan Weisberg and 
David Klingenberger 
In memory of Dan’s Mother, 
Lucille Weisberg

 

The Egalitarian Kotel Could Be Eliminated— Take Action Now

Click the above link for information 
and option to sign the petition

 

Masorti Alert on March 4, 2026
Emergency Support Needed:
Stand with Our Masorti Family in Israel



Link to Memorial Lecture rsvp

Jump to "About the Speaker",  Rabbi Elie Spitz

 

rsvp link is forthcoming
come back soon
Congregation Beth Shalom's 
Annual Campaign

 

Dear Beth Shalom Congregants and Friends, 

As we approach Passover and the close of our Annual Campaign, we want to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who has already participated with such generosity and care. Your timely gifts have brought us to the threshold of our $20,000 goal — a wonderful achievement that reflects the strength and spirit of our community. We are deeply grateful. 

There is still time to build on this success. Reaching and even surpassing our goal would truly be a blessing for Beth Shalom and all that we share together. At this stage, our hope is simple and meaningful: 100% participation from our members and friends. Every contribution, large or small, is a valued expression of commitment and belonging. If you have not yet had the opportunity to take part, we warmly invite you to join in going beyond the finish line together. 

Thank you again for your past generosity and for the support we know we can count on in these final weeks of the Campaign. Your continued kindness sustains our congregation today and strengthens it for the future.

     Board of Directors
     Congregation Beth Shalom

 

 

Please click HERE to donate
to our Annual Campaign

 

click for your 
opportunity to participate

Link to Memorial Lecture rsvp

about the speaker...

 

With candor, questioning and sharp-eyed scholarship, Rabbi Elie Kaplan Spitz recounts personal experiences and the first hand accounts others have shared with him, which propelled his own journey from skeptic to believer that, indeed, the soul does survive bodily death.

From near-death experiences to reincarnation, past-life memory to the work of mediums, Rabbi Spitz explores what we are really able to know about the afterlife, and draws on Jewish texts to share that belief in these concepts—so often approached with reluctance—is in fact true to Jewish tradition.

In the updated second edition, Rabbi Spitz looks squarely at both sides of the issues, addressing, for example, the discrepancies in afterlife and reincarnation accounts. A new preface explains the impact the book had when first published and the ongoing conversation about the nature of our existence that has resulted.

Some reviews:

“Readers will close this book wondering, questioning, perhaps recalling their own unexplainable moments of connection that transcend the five senses.”
—NY Jewish Week

“A serious and sophisticated inquiry into an arena that many of us might easily dismiss.... Does a very good job of showing that the belief in some form of reincarnation is authentically rooted in the Jewish tradition.... Makes a powerful argument that belief in the survival of the soul may have useful spiritual and moral consequences.”
—Tikkun

“Elegantly written.... Rabbi Elie Spitz’s ‘journey’ will inspire its readers to follow his example and search for what is meaningful in Jewish life and learning.”
—Elie Wiesel

“Rabbi Spitz has treated a topic that many approach with doubts in a learned, cogent, Jewishly informed, and, above all, human manner. His personal touch, as well as his mastery of both classical Jewish and modern historical, philosophical and psychological writings on the topic of the soul and its transmigration makes for challenging and thoughtful reading.... Indicates that Judaism has a great deal to say about a subject that is all-too-often exclusively associated in the popular mind with eastern religions. Readers of all stripes and faiths will be provoked and moved by this book.”
—Rabbi David Ellenson, PhD, president, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion

        Be sure not to miss this fascinating discussion
        by Rabbi Spitz

           Link to Memorial Lecture rsvp

Come Explore Pirkei Avot

In response to requests for pre-Shabbat service learning, the Auxiliary Committee and Rabbi Sacks are delighted to offer a bimonthly class exploring Pirkei Avot, taught by Rabbi Rachel Axelrad. The class, in an interactive discussion format, will be meeting twice a month on Shabbat before services. The class will begin at 8:45 a.m. and go until about 9:15 a.m. The building will open around 8:35 to allow us to get settled.

Course Schedule: March 21 /  April 4, 18. There is no charge for this class. Please RSVP to the office to indicate interest in this class, even if you cannot make every session.

      Click here to rsvp


From the Rabbi's Desk

   

 

 

 

    Rabbi J.B. Sacks
 
From the Rabbi’s Study

      Yaḥatz: Brokenness and Wholeness–A Passover Message

Yachatz is one of the essential steps of the Passover Seder. In this step, we formally break the middle of our three matzahs. We take the larger of the broken halves and hide it as the afikoman. We put the smaller half back in the stack, in between the top and bottom matzot on the table.

Brokenness Is Part of the Passover Story

Yachatz represents brokenness and the possibility for wholeness. So much of the Passover story is about brokenness:
    ● Our trust in Pharaoh was broken when a new Pharaoh, “who knew not Joseph,” arose, refused to recognize Joseph’s accomplishments, and suddenly enslaved us.
    ● Our backs were broken from the toil of slavery, particularly after Pharaoh upped the quotas and reduced the materials we might use.
    ● Our hearts were broken when the first-born Israelite male babies were murdered in the Nile River by government order.
    ● Pharaoh kept breaking his promise, now allowing the Israelites to leave but then “hardening his heart” and refusing to let this happen.
    ● Later the waters of the Sea of Reeds broke open, enabling us to cross to safety on the other side.

Yet the Seder invites us to move from our communal memory of that time to reflection on our present. In that light, we invite you to consider (and perhaps ask at your seder!):
    ● In what ways does the world seem broken today?
    ● And what systems already in place might need breaking to make the world a better   place?

Sharing Bread/Matzah Is a Path Forward
One beautiful explanation offered by the Sages for this Yaḥatz ritual helps promote one path toward making the world less broken, if not completely whole. This explanation asserts that the act of breaking the matzah re-enacts the manner in which the Israelite slaves conducted themselves during their enslavement in Egypt.

An Israelite slave who was fortunate to have had a bit more means would break off a piece of their bread and share it with a fellow slave who may have had less. The ritual of yaḥatz highlights the character strength of kindness, the remarkable unity of our people forged during the deprivation of living under Pharaoh, the solidarity that we had with all of the oppressed slaves–Israelite or not–and the resilience that our ancestors modeled even though their lives were broken.

                 


World Transformation Begins with Ourselves
Yet our tradition recommends that our work at fixing the world’s brokenness begin with ourselves. For the Passover Haggadah states, “In each and every generation, each person must see themself as having been personally redeemed from Egypt.” So we also invite you to consider:
    ● In what ways are you broken?
    ● What patterns, habits, and routines of yours need breaking?

As we prepare our homes for Passover, then, we should also prepare our hearts. At the Seder, when we get to Yaḥatz we reconnect with our own broken-heartedness. We honor our cracked surfaces and sharp edges, unafraid to see our brittleness and brave enough to see our beauty. Reaching for wholeness, we begin to piece together the disparate parts of ourselves.

As we celebrate the Passover seder, let us be inspired to seek a world in which we and the world are again whole.

Let us embrace our entire selves, including our rough edges and broken parts.
Let us remain attuned to the brokenness within us and around us.
Let us share what we might with others who experience brokenness, too.
Let us remain in solidarity with our people, our traditions and our values.
Let us forge alliances and friendships with all people.

As we take in the lessons of Yaḥatz, may we start to envision and enact a better world, shaped, at least in some small way, by the better version of ourselves that emerges.

Ḥag kasher v’samei-aḥ! May you have a meaningful, healthy, joyful, delicious Passover, one that leads you again to the path of wholeness.
    Rabbi J.B. Sacks

 

To read Rabbi Sacks's previous publications...
Link to: From the Rabbi's Desk 

To see other articles by Rabbi Sacks, please CLICK HERE.

NOTIFICATIONS

 

This week’s Mi Shebeirakh list includes:
 

Jhon Gunther

Margo Kuno

Morton Roberts

Lenny Ross

חנה בת מאטלא ונחום הכהן

װעלװל פנחס בן שרה ואפרים

שרה בת גיטל

Thoughtful gifting can be made HERE

 

Sponsorships / Donations

 

Click HERE for Kiddush Sponsor Information and Registration

Upcoming Security Sponsors

Click HERE for Security Sponsor Information and Registration

 

    

 

 

Zelle Now Accepted for 
Payments & Donations
Congregation Beth Shalom now accepts Zelle for convenient,
secure payments and/or donations.
To use Zelle, simply send your contribution to CBSJCC‑18 using
the email you normally use for our payments.

 

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ONLINE OFFERINGS  click on the links below

           

   

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     Bulletin Sections

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 Notifications:     (Misheberach)         ( Yahrzeit  -  Birthday  -  Anniversary )

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   Pirke Avot Class

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Mon, March 9 2026 20 Adar 5786