Finding new Passover perspectives

How to make the message behind the Passover holiday fresh each year is perhaps a question rabbis have struggled with since the Jews fled Egypt 3,000 years ago.

“For most people, it’s about ‘How do I relate to something that happened 3,000 years ago,’” said Rabbi Marc Rubenstein of Temple Isaiah in Newport Beach. “We’re trying to address the theme with a modern answer.”

The Passover Seder, a highly ritualized meal that commemorates the bitterness of Jewish slavery with symbolic foods, typically begins with the first of four questions: “Why is this night different from all other nights?”

When Passover begins at sundown tonight, Rubenstein hopes to answer that with a set of new questions.

“My four different questions have to do with global warming — they have to do with the war in Iraq and self-identity, self-actualization and the disintegration of family,” Rubenstein said.

Rubenstein’s inspiration for rewriting the traditional four questions came from current events.

Listening to talk at a recent political forum at Temple Isaiah, Rubenstein found that people were concerned about things like the issues in the upcoming presidential election, the price of gas and climbing divorce rates.

“Rabbis have to make holidays meaningful,” Rubenstein said. “[Like the Jews fleeing Egypt], we too have to cross a moral wilderness, and today we are searching for a leader like Moses.”

For Rabbi Reuven Mintz of Chabad Jewish Center in Newport Beach, the Passover story and the centuries of tradition behind the Seder keep the holiday relevant. As long as there is slavery in the world, both symbolic and real, the Passover holiday will remain relevant, he said.

“We achieve success in our lives through knowing where you came from and where we are,” Mintz said. “We’re reminded of our humble beginnings. We were enslaved.”

Chabad will host a Seder tonight at the Newport Beach Fairmont hotel that will feature many traditional Passover foods, including matzo ball soup, and a Seder.

Following ancient traditions such as eating bitter herbs during the Seder to symbolize the bitterness of slavery or parsley dipped in salt water to symbolize the tears of slaves gives people a chance to reflect on what really matters in life, Mintz said.

“We must keep these things in our lives and focus by making this world a better place as well,” Mintz said.

Temple Isaiah will host a community Seder at 6:30 p.m. tonight at 2410 Irvine Ave. in Newport Beach. The meal costs $40 for adults and $10 for children. Seats are still available. A Seder hosted by Chabad Jewish Center at 7 p.m. tonight at the Fairmont Newport Beach hotel, 4500 MacArthur Blvd., is completely booked, as is a Seder at Temple Bat Yahm, 1011 Camelback St.

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at brianna.bailey@latimes.com.