Comic Twist at Church’s Seder : Religion: Shelley Berman uses teaching and humor to lead Presbyterians in Jewish observance.

Why was this night different from all other nights?

The Presbyterians were having a Seder. But they weren’t entirely on their own. Their Seder, which marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover, was led by comedian Shelley Berman.

“Can you believe me, in a church?” the Jewish comedian said Thursday night with a nervous laugh as he paced around the Fellowship Hall of the Woodland Hills Presbyterian Church a few minutes before the ceremonial meal was set to begin.

All around him, the room was filling up with smiling members of the congregation, many in their Sunday best. Take away the matzo from the tables and the event could have been mistaken for a Midwestern church social.

“For tonight, we’re all going to be Jewish!” Berman announced to the capacity crowd of about 100 as they passed around Haggadas, the books that guide participants through the Seder.

“ ‘Seder’ means ‘order,’ ” he told them, “and ‘Haggada’ means ‘story.’ Tonight we tell the story of Passover in a certain order.”

He held up the inside cover of the Haggada to point out an advertisement for Standard Brands, makers of Chase & Sanborn coffee, which issued complimentary copies of the book. This, Berman told them, is also traditional.

“Tonight, you are all Chase & Sanborn Jews,” he said, “having your Seder led by someone who was raised a Maxwell House Jew.”

The teaching, mixed in with a bit of humor, set the tone for the evening. It was exactly what Ron Spiller had in mind when he invited Berman, his neighbor in Bell Canyon, to host the event.

“We have been having a Seder at our church for several years, but it’s been done just by the goys, “ or non-Jews, said Spiller, head of the fellowship committee at the church. “This year we wanted someone who could make it authentic.”

Berman provided phonetic versions of Hebrew texts for the choir and he directed the fellowship committee to get the various foods needed for a Seder, during which the story of the Jews fleeing from slavery in ancient Egypt is told.

His list included the unleavened matzo, a type of bread Jews ate in the desert when on the run, and horseradish, which symbolizes the bitterness of those days. He had them make an apple-walnut-cinnamon charoses mixture to represent the sweetness of freedom.

He even had them get the traditional, astonishingly sweet red wine from New York state that only makes an appearance in most homes on Passover.

Berman took them through all the basic ceremonies, including the spilling of a bit of wine out of the cup when reading about the plagues God set upon Egypt. “In this way, we take some of the joy out of the cup, because we should not take joy in other people’s suffering,” he explained.

“I’m very proud of this. It shows compassion.”

The famous Four Questions, which point out why this night is “different from all other nights,” were bravely sung in Hebrew by six children who looked as if they had just stepped in from an Easter parade.

Like Seder leaders over the centuries, Berman got the order a bit mixed up on occasion. At one point, Teri Lubber, the pastor’s wife, reached over to quietly point out a mistake.

“I didn’t know that they were going to sit me next to a Jewish mother,” Berman quipped, getting a big laugh.

Indeed, there were a number of inadvertent similarities between this Presbyterian Seder and those in Jewish homes. The children got restless after a while, hungry adults sneaked early bites of the charoses and a few Haggada passages were skipped to get to the singing of “Dayaynoo,” which is always an audience-participation favorite.

By the end, Berman had recaptured the crowd. Even the children listened in silence as he explained the last prayer. “For 2,000 years, every festival, every feast, every holiday has ended with: ‘L’sho-noh ha-bo-oh bee-ru-sho-lo-yeem,’ ‘Next year in Jerusalem.’

“That is a reality, now, but is there peace?”

He shook his head.

“So this year, let us say, ‘Next year in Jerusalem, with peace. ‘ “

Berman looked out over the audience and smiled. His eyes were moist.

“Happy Passover, everyone. Happy Easter.”