Seder

"For now the winter is gone, the rains are over and gone; the blossoms appear in the land," joyfully proclaims the Song of Songs, the biblical book read in synagogues throughout the Jewish world on Passover, the spring festival of freedom. How vividly too the words describe the arrival of Passover here in Los Angeles. The hills, so brown and bare-looking in summer, are bursting now with rich green foliage, thanks to the winter rains. Vivid red, white and purple wildflowers dot the canyons, as the earth shows signs of rebirth and renewal.

We want to see your Passover seders! The prayer books, the candles, the obligatory Manischewitz wine on the table.... We want to see it all.  President Obama celebrated with a special silver plate he received from Sara Netanyahu, wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during his recent visit to Israel; Drake had a traditional table setting; and stylist and designer Rachel Zoe went with white napkins, candles and plates for the occasion....

Phillip McLachlan, a 23-year-old ex-felon and recovering drug user, learned a new word on Sunday: D 'ay-nu , which in Hebrew means "enough." McLachlan was one of 50 clients of the Skid Row-based Weingart Center who participated in their first Passover seder, held by Los Angeles Jewish Family Services and B'nai B'rith. They were joined by about 40 Jewish senior citizens from the Israel Levin Center in Venice. "You've got to learn to adjust to other cultures and traditions," McLachlan said.

Monday night marked the beginning of Passover. Families around the world gathered to celebrate the holiday and discuss why this night is different from any other night. Celebrities took to Twitter and Instagram to share their well wishes and post pictures of their celebrations. Here is a look at the highlights: Drake, known as @champagnpapi on Instagram, posted a picture of his family Seder with the captions "Talking matzah and plagues...Happy Passover. " There were no snide remarks from E!

Mary Rourke asserts in her article "The Rites of Spring" (April 1) that the sacred holidays of Easter and Passover have lost much of their religious meaning. She provides valuable insight into the secularization of most religious holidays in our contemporary world. However, my main point was not that "some families' Seders are becoming just a Passover dinner." The critical point I made in our 45-minute discussion was that Passover has seen an infusion of religious creativity and many Jews, by contemporizing the Seder, are in fact striving to enhance its meaning.

Our Passover table was radiant: Polished silver reflected the sparkling candles and eager faces flushed with holiday excitement. We were 18 seated together. Eighteen is the numerical equivalent of chai, the Hebrew word meaning life. Warm and loving friends joined us, our daughter Judi, son-in-law John and grandson Matthew in prayer and song. Our Seder, the Passover ritual meal and service, truly was a lively celebration of life. Springtime had emerged like a newborn child. It was 1-year-old Matthew's first Seder.

When Hollywood big shots take a meeting, they go to Chasen's. So why not go there to take a seder? "When we invite people to Chasen's for Passover they say, 'What, are you crazy?,' " said Evelyn Ostin, who along with her husband, Mo, chairman of Warner Bros. Records, helped host Monday night's otherwise traditional seder for 126. "It's absolutely Hollywood but once they come they love it," Ostin said. "We don't lose the religious aspect and there's a wonderful sense of family here."

As a reminder of how much his life has changed, Rabbi Mark Borovitz wore a starched blue prisoner's shirt. He reveled in the symbolism, stroking his beard, dancing a jig, smiling broadly. Then, from a low stage in a well-lit sanctuary, he looked out at his congregants and turned the tale of Exodus into a parable on fighting addiction. "How," he shouted, "are you going to get out of Egypt this year? What's the inner slavery you are going to leave behind?" For many inside the temple this night, the question cut to the bone.

There is no word for what I am. Even Yiddish, a language that has immortalized schlemiels , shmendricks and zhlubs, has no name for me. I am a seder hustler. Every year around Passover, I start hanging around my Jewish friends, hoping someone will pop the question and invite me to the holiday meal. "Man, I sure could go for some unleavened bread. You folks havin' a big seder this year?" I'll say, and then I'll shoot them the lost-at-Ellis-Island look.

Monday night marked the beginning of Passover. Families around the world gathered to celebrate the holiday and discuss why this night is different from any other night. Celebrities took to Twitter and Instagram to share their well wishes and post pictures of their celebrations. Here is a look at the highlights: Drake, known as @champagnpapi on Instagram, posted a picture of his family Seder with the captions "Talking matzah and plagues...Happy Passover. " There were no snide remarks from E!

Haroset , a blend of fruit, nuts and wine, is probably the most popular food of the eight-day holiday of Passover, which begins on Monday night. For the Seder, the feast commemorating the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt, haroset is spooned onto the Seder plate alongside other symbolic Passover preparations and is served as part of the ritual. Although haroset's brown color is meant to be a sad reminder of the mortar made by the Hebrew slaves, people's faces light up when it's time to sample it. Some Jews prepare extra haroset to use as a spread throughout Passover.

There are slivers of wit embedded in the broad shtick of "Let My People Go!," a home-for-the-holidays romantic comedy for which home is a noisy Parisian clan, the holiday is Passover and the prodigal son is a gay 30ish mailman whose usual state of mind is the tizzies. The road to the inevitable slapsticky Seder is paved with more sweetness than bite, a good deal of frantic foolishness and progressively thinner laughs, all wrapped in a message of acceptance and inclusiveness. Scripted by first-time director Mikael Buch and art-house auteur Christophe Honoré, the farce is by turns fresh and fusty.

When I married into a Yemenite family in Israel more than 40 years ago, it raised some eyebrows. Since my family was of Polish and Russian origin, I was embracing a different culture, including foods that were unlike the Ashkenazi ones I had grown up with. When the Jews are classified into two broad groups, my in-laws count as Sephardim - Jews from Mediterranean and Middle Eastern lands. In Israel, such "mixed marriages" of Ashkenazim and Sephardim have become much more common, and this is naturally reflected in today's Passover menus.

Esther M. Broner, a Jewish feminist whose egalitarian vision led her to create a Passover Seder and other Jewish ceremonies that emphasized women's perspectives, died June 21 in New York City. She was 83. The cause was multiple organ failure from an infection, said her daughter, Nahama Broner. The author of 11 books, including four novels, Broner was best known for "The Women's Haggadah," which combined feminist commentaries, songs and other activities in a new ritual recognizing women's role in the commemoration of the ancient Israelites' exodus from Egypt.

I've always loved Passover, ever since I was a little girl. Long before I understood it as the Festival of Freedom that celebrates the ancient Israelites' exodus from slavery in Egypt, to me it was the holiday of difference. Indeed, it was — and still is — a time to join together for a ritual meal called a Seder, at which we ask ourselves: "Why is this night different from all other nights?" One answer could be: because everything tastes like matzo. But that doesn't have to be true.

As a reminder of how much his life has changed, Rabbi Mark Borovitz wore a starched blue prisoner's shirt. He reveled in the symbolism, stroking his beard, dancing a jig, smiling broadly. Then, from a low stage in a well-lit sanctuary, he looked out at his congregants and turned the tale of Exodus into a parable on fighting addiction. "How," he shouted, "are you going to get out of Egypt this year? What's the inner slavery you are going to leave behind?" For many inside the temple this night, the question cut to the bone.

Come on, T.H. [McCulloh], lighten up! This is community theater, not SCR! The performances and direction of Cypress Civic Theatre's "Beau Jest" ("Not Enough Jest in Revival of Sherman Comedy," Sept. 13) were as professional as I have seen in many a high-ticket venue. The Seder act was hilarious, Manny Siegall got all his laughs, and the audience had a great time. Sounds like you had some bad kugel before the show. HARRIET J. OTTAVIANO Seal Beach

Even before the blessing of the wine--the Kiddush-- Rabbi Mika M. Weiss opened the Seder with a lecture. "Passover celebrates freedom from slavery," he said, plastic cup of grape juice in one hand and paperback Haggadah, a Passover prayer book, in the other. "You should appreciate your freedom--in spite of the fact you are here." At a ritual already rich in symbolism, the rabbi stated the obvious.

Thousands of years after Moses led his people out of Egypt, the Passover story is going digital. At Monday's Seder meal, dozens of families will be reading the traditional tableside ceremony from a Haggadah, a text guiding the Seder, that they have personalized by uploading family photos to replace stock illustrations of Pharaoh and the slaves. Behrman House, a Jewish educational publisher in Springfield, N.J., has sold more than 100 sets of the cyber-assisted version of its Family Haggadah.