A PEOPLE'S HISTORY ON ONE PLATE.

Byline: JONATHAN DOBRER Local view

Passover is always a happy family time. We remember slavery but we celebrate freedom. Passover involves what we love most: food, family and passionate discussions.

I have been busily working on our Haggadah, our guide for telling the story of our liberation, which we recount with our traditional prayers, rituals and songs. There is no single Haggadah; each age and community finds new ways of telling our story.

The sages said that all that is required for a Passover Seder is that the story of the Exodus be told and the elements on the plate explained. In Judaism, food is more than physical nourishment. It is also spiritual and it tells a story; it tells our story.

The lamb bone reminds us of the price of our birth, redemption and rebirth. On one level, Judaism is born when Abraham is given a ram to sacrifice instead of his son. It is redeemed from slavery when lambs are sacrificed so that the Angel of Death might Passover the houses that have been marked by the blood of the lambs. Judaism is thus reborn from the darkness of light of the desert and freedom.

The parsley is a symbol of the gifts of nature, the fruit of the earth. Being green is also a reminder of spring and the renewal of life - our lives and the earth's life in the springtime. It reminds us that the cold seasons of enslavement and Holocaust end, and new life may come into our world and into our hearts.

The egg is a reminder of life's great strength and promise. Beneath its seemingly dead exterior, there is life waiting to be born.

The bitter herb (the horseradish) and the saltwater remind us of our bitter tears as we suffered in slavery.

The choroset is a complex and mixed symbol. It represents the mortar we were forced to use in building Egyptian cities. Yet, being a mixture of fruits, nuts and wine, it is also sweet that it may remind us not to give up in despair.

Finally, there are the bread and the wine. The unleavened bread, the matzah, reminds us that opportunities must be taken when offered, and freedom is far too important to wait around till the bread rises.

As for our wine ... though there are some sophisticated wines that are kosher for Passover, traditionally we have drunk sweet red wine. This reminds us of blood that was spilled to bring us to this sweet season. Freedom is costly, and we mourn and celebrate at the same time.

As with so many Jewish holidays and holy days, Passover is centered in the home largely because the temple was physically destroyed in the year 70 of the Common Era. With the destruction of the temple and the scattering of the Jewish people in the Diaspora, the temple reappeared in each Jewish household.

The altar became the dinner table and the sacrificial feast the Sabbath dinner. Still, there is only one location for one temple and that is in Jerusalem. The others are reminders, not replacements.

On Passover our own home will be filled with people, family and friends. We will remember our history and dedicate ourselves to the future. This is, after all, what our ancestors did in leaving Egypt. They left because slavery was bitter, but they did not live to enter into the Promised Land.

Was it worth it? At times they questioned it, but in the end they knew that what we do, what we fight for is not for ourselves alone. They left Egypt and wandered in the desert for the sake of the next generation, so that their children and their children's children could have the blessings of liberty.

Every generation has its time. We each run our relay across our own personal Sinai and hand off our legacy to the next generation. For some their time has been filled with incredible difficulty and pain. For others, the travails have been far less onerous. We do our best with what life offers and in the course of our lives we transmit our precious legacy in song, with food and in prayers of grateful thanksgiving.