PASSOVER'S MAN ABOUT TOWN : ELIJAH SACRED, BELOVED GUEST AT SEDER MEALS.

Byline: Glenn Gaslin Daily News Staff Writer

Jennifer Yeger knows about the guest. She figured the whole thing out four years ago, when she was 10, by outsmarting her parents when she suspected something fishy about one Passover story.

According to her parents, an ancient prophet named Elijah stops by their house once a year. According to stories told for hundreds of years, the biblical figure travels the Earth tonight as Jews celebrate the first night of Passover, slipping through open doors, heralding things to come.

And to leave his mark, he sips from a glass of wine left for him at each home holding a Seder, the ritual meal marking the first night of the eight-day Jewish holiday.

Years ago, when young Yeger left the Seder table to open the door for this mystical guest, she suspected that her parents gulped from Elijah's cup, fooling her, just as Jewish parents have fooled kids for generations: He came

He drank

He's real!

``And then once, when I was 10,'' said the Woodland Hills teen, a crafty smile on her face, ``I walked backward to see if my parents were messing with the glass.''

They were. The spell was broken, but another was cast. Like many Jews at one of the year's most festive holidays, Yeger learned that the story of Elijah resonates a deeper faith.

``You still have that doubt in your mind,'' she said. ``You still think he might be there.''

He's 2,800 years old. He's invisible and symbolic of the coming of the Messiah. He can raise the dead. He's Elijah the prophet, and this week, he's the life of the party.

About 90 percent of Jews celebrate Passover, which commemorates the Hebrews' liberation from slavery in ancient Egypt and receiving the Ten Commandments from God, making Elijah one of the religion's most popular characters.

And for many children, he is an accessible - even fun - entry point into the spiritual world.

``He's invisible,'' said Nadia Branstrom, 10, a student at Kadima Hebrew Academy in Woodland Hills.

``He never died,'' said another Kadima student. ``He comes when I'm asleep.''

``It's like the tooth fairy,'' said Matan Weissman, 10. ``Kind of.''

For many Jews, the adolescent realization that Elijah may not be visiting, that his wine went into the bellies of mom and dad, doesn't exactly bring disappointment. It serves as a step in spiritual growth, a subtle segue between ``believing'' in something and ``having faith'' in the workings of God.

``I think I'm very lucky because I don't think I ever had much of a bumpy transition between childhood awe and that leap of faith,'' explains Larry Miller, a Sherman Oaks actor and comedian, currently featured in ``Waiting for Guffman.''

``I'm sure there was an adolescent period of `I'm-far-too-savvy-to-participate-in-these-silly-rituals', but I really don't remember that.''

And so, each Jew develops his own relationship with the guest, said Ron Wolfson, vice president of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles. He studies and teaches religious rituals, and has written a book called ``The Art of Jewish Living: The Passover Seder.''

``Elijah, too, is the symbol of the Messianic time, the time to come, a time when everything will be OK,'' Wolfson explained. ``The notion that you open the door for Elijah means that you have to work to bring the Messiah. We all have a part in it.''

Everybody's got an Elijah story, too, he said, some wacky, some old, some irreverent. The guest, present or not, becomes an unpredictable member of the family, and opening the door for him invites an element of surprise and suspense.

``I've heard people open the door and a cat walks in,'' Wolfson said. ``I heard about a family that opened the door and a guy from the Census Bureau walked in.''

The once-angry prophet's visit has even crossed recently into popular culture. The popular Nickelodeon cartoon ``Rugrats'' last year created a Passover special episode, a rarity in television. And on ``Saturday Night Live,'' Jerry Seinfeld portrayed a bitter, abrasive, wine-guzzling Elijah who disrupts a stuffy, overdrawn Seder.

``You know, I do remember watching the glass and thinking, he's drinking it now,'' said Arlene Klasky, executive producer of ``Rugrats.'' ``And I'd be hoping that the wine would go down so that I could have believed in that sort of mystical thing.''

The story of Elijah is almost 3,000 years old. It recounts the prophet (known by his Hebrew name of Eliyahu) wandering the hills of Israel in a loincloth, raging against the Phoenician Queen Jezebel and a sect of priests who introduced an idol to the Jewish people, a symbol forbidden by the commandments.

Most important of all, Elijah never died, but was lifted to heaven in a fiery chariot. This provided an opening for his continued presence on Earth, and rabbis of the past millennia have worked him into ritual. He has a cup at Passover and a chair at ritual circumcisions.

While tradition has Elijah perhaps visiting every Seder, Wolfson said that we will know for sure when he does show up. When he peeks in front doors from Tel Aviv to Encino, the Messianic time is upon us, Wolfson said, the world will become a place of peace.

And every year should bring Jews closer to that day, he said.

Customizing the Seder can help, he said, suggesting that each guest contribute some of their wine into Elijah's cup. This adds to the tradition, making the home-centered holiday more personal and symbolizing everyone's resolve to help improve the world.

Wolfson even takes ``Elijah walks,'' strolling his Seder dinner party into the San Fernando Valley streets after the third traditional cup of wine, possibly to meet the ancient one.

Plus, it's another good Elijah story to tell.

``I've also known people who dress up like Elijah and act it out, but we're worried about getting into a Santa Claus thing,'' he said. ``This is a spiritual notion, and so he cannot seem too real.''

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

PHOTO (1 -- color) Elijah waves to kids at a North Hollywood temple to convey the story of the prophet who is said to visit Jewish homes at Passover to sip a cup of wine.

(2 -- color) Eli Ayala, 3, and Jonathon Alkalai, 3, taste matzot during a mock Seder.

Jeremy Greene/Special to the Daily News

(3) Jerry Seinfeld

As Elijah the prophet on ``Saturday Night Live''