Orange County Seder Takes On Feminist Cast : Passover: Pre-holiday meal sets aside cup of wine for Miriam to symbolize the contribution of women to Jewish history.

Like Jews observing Passover all over the world, celebrants interrupted a recent pre-holiday Seder here to symbolically open a door for Elijah. By setting aside a cup of wine for the prophet, tradition teaches, Jews can hasten the coming of the messianic age.

At this particular gathering, however, a second cup was offered as well.

Filled with water, it was in symbolic recognition, the presiding rabbi said, of Miriam, a “woman of vision” whose wells acted as way-stations for the ancient Israelites during their wanderings in the desert.

The season of Passover has arrived once again, this time with a twist: Welcome to Orange County’s first feminist Seder.

“It’s a major event,” said Judy Glickman Zevin, co-founder of the recently formed Orange County Jewish Feminist Institute, which sponsored the gathering at the Jewish Community Center. “Women’s voices haven’t been heard in traditional Judaism. We’ve played a pivotal role (in Jewish history) but haven’t had the status of the male elite.”

Traditionally, Jewish feminists say, women have spent more time in the kitchen preparing the Passover meal than appearing in the pages of the Haggada, the “guidebook” by which the Seder is conducted. “We sometimes wonder whether we were there at all as (the Jews) came down from Sinai,” said Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell of Irvine, who presided over the feminist Seder. “The answer is, yes, we were there!”

Orthodox rabbis disagree that the importance of women has been downplayed in traditional Jewish observance. To dramatize their claim that it has, members of the Orange County Jewish Feminist Institute chose to focus on Passover, generally the most widely celebrated Jewish holiday.

The eight-day festival, which began at sunset Monday, commemorates the story of Moses leading the Jews out of slavery in Egypt 3,000 years ago. After wandering for 40 years in the desert, biblical accounts say, the Jewish people arrived in the Promised Land and created the nation of Israel. Today, Jews commemorate the event as a celebration of freedom by conducting one or more Seders, ceremonial meals during which the story is retold and certain foods consumed in symbolic re-creation of the Exodus.

Last week’s Seder, held a few days before the holiday to allow participants to incorporate elements of it into their home Passover celebrations, vividly reflected feminine involvement. Attended by about 100 people, including a handful of men, the Seder was planned by women.

Rather than being conducted, as tradition dictates, by the male head of the household, the service was overseen by a female rabbi and cantor. At several points, the liturgy departed from the traditional to point up feminine issues and concerns.

In addition to the questions traditionally asked by children during the service regarding the origins of Passover, were these: Why does the modern world still view women in relation to a male norm? And why is it that despite our “advances,” women feel unsafe walking home at night?

And during the naming of the 10 plagues believed to have been inflicted by God on the ancient Egyptians for their treatment of the Jews, celebrants added such modern-day concerns as “the blood of women forced to have illegal abortions, the pestilence of chemicals which plague our reproductive systems . . . and the subliminal messages of society which glamorize the thin, ‘youthful’ ideal and persuade us to spend millions of dollars on beauty products and surgery that damage and deform our bodies.”

Some Orthodox Jews object to such formulations as unnecessary revisions of a tradition that, they say, has never been exclusive of women.

“Women are very much included in Judaism,” said Rabbi Moishe Engel, director of adult education at the Hebrew Academy in Westminster. “(The religion) recognizes their feminine needs, their spiritual natures and their connection to God, which is of primary importance.”

Others are reluctant to criticize what they see as a genuine search for Jewish values. “I may disagree with their approach,” said Rabbi David Eliezrie, director of the North County Chabad Center in Yorba Linda, “but I deeply respect the quest of these women to expand their Jewish observance and identity.”

For many women, the quest seemed to be working.

“I think this is beautiful,” said Jane Bernhardt, 42, a Passover celebrant from Irvine. “It’s rich with a very full and loving interpretation of Judaism. It’s really unimaginable; I feel a really warm welcome to myself as a woman.”