Seder a Time to Share a Religious Tradition

Every year, Robin Westmiller’s relatives travel from distant states such as New York, Iowa, Minnesota and Washington to celebrate Passover in Thousand Oaks.

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“This is an annual trek for them,” she said. But this year, the relatives are staying home and three new guests will join the Westmiller family for a traditional Seder meal tonight.

“Each of my daughters is inviting a girlfriend who isn’t Jewish so we can share our religious culture with them,” Westmiller said. “It promotes understanding. . . . The fear of the unknown is alleviated, they get to share and understand that we are not that different.”

Families across Ventura County will celebrate the biblical holiday of Passover, which begins tonight at sundown and commemorates the Israelites’ flight from slavery in Egypt about 4,000 years ago.

The eight-day Passover period calls upon Jews to remember their ancient passage to freedom, while reiterating the meaning and significance of liberation, even by current standards.

“The moral of the whole story is that people are free and should appreciate their freedom,” said Rabbi Shimon Paskow, who will lead Passover services at Temple Etz Chaim in Thousand Oaks on Saturday morning.

On Saturday evening, about 250 people will gather at the temple for a community Seder to celebrate Passover. The temple is the largest in Ventura County with a congregation of about 700 families, Paskow said.

In Ventura, a community Seder will be held at Temple Beth Torah at 5:30 p.m. Ojai’s first community Seder, sponsored by the Jewish Center, will be held at Soule Park Golf Course on Saturday evening as well.

But tonight, most families will celebrate the first night of Passover at home, eating a traditional meal, singing songs and reading the Passover story from the Haggadah, a book containing the narrative and Seder ritual.

“This is the most important of all Jewish holidays,” said Byron Swanson, a religion professor at Cal Lutheran University.

“The Passover for the Jews goes back to the exodus when the Hebrews were enslaved in Egypt under the Pharoah,” he explained. “And therefore, for them it is a memorial for the liberation of the Jews from bondage.”

This week about 400 children attending religious school at Temple Etz Chaim were taught how to conduct a Passover Seder, a traditional meal featuring ceremonial foods such as matzo, a lamb bone and bitter herbs, each symbolizing aspects of the Passover story.

Matzo, which is flat or “unleavened” to symbolize the haste in which Jews baked it during their exodus from Egypt, is a central part of the Seder meal. Paskow said the children learned to bake matzo this week and took Seder trays home with them.

An Asian family, whose children attend the temple school, reciprocated with a treat of their own.

“The children brought home a Seder tray with traditional foods-- matzo, parsley and egg--to celebrate Passover,” Paskow said. “They went home and they sent in sushi trays.”

Westmiller said she planned to do her last-minute Seder shopping today, assembling a kosher meal of matzo ball soup, brisket of beef, gefilte fish, and charoset, a sweet mixture of apples, walnuts, honey, cinnamon and wine.

Although wine traditionally accompanies the Seder, her daughters’ friends will drink grape juice. Westmiller said the Jewish feast will not be too different from the Easter meal they may eat Sunday. But, she acknowledged: “We don’t have a Passover bunny.”