STUDENTS USE BIBLE TALE AS LITERATURE LESSON; PASSOVER PROVIDES SPRINGBOARD FOR CELEBRATION IN CLASSROOM.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Daily News Staff Writer

The enticing aroma of roasting beef brisket wafted outside Room R-6, and Harry Welch, in a gold-braided purple yarmulke invited passers-by to dine.

``Come on in. Eat,'' the former Canyon High School football coach called to fellow teachers, a hint of Jewish mother in his order.

His football days behind him, Welch continues to fulfill his role as teacher, most recently bringing life to lessons on Passover for his Bible as literature class at Canyon High. He has taught the English course for 29 years.

Friday his three dozen 11th- and 12th-grade students were released from other classes to spend the day at a Seder celebration, reliving a biblical story of Passover, when the ancient Jews were delivered from Egyptian slavery.

The class does not provide a religious forum for Bible discussion but covers the Old and New Testaments as literature. The story of Passover is seen as simply a story of one people escaping slavery and the traditions that have held over the centuries.

Students - Mormons, Catholics, agnostics, Protestants and one Jew - said they view the stories as historical.

``I go out of the way to keep faith out of it,'' said Welch, who taught at the Catholic Crespi Carmelite High School in Encino before coming to Canyon High. ``It has more to do with independent thought and self-reasoning. It is like no other literature.''

Students put several hours each day into preparing their Seder. The walls of Rooms R-5 and R-6, two bungalows on the edge of the Canyon Country campus, were covered in designs from the Exodus stories. There were stars of David, blue and white lights, and streamers and illustrations of the 10 plagues that swept the Egyptians until the Jews could make their escape.

The locusts, flies, gnats and river of blood looked menacing, but the plague of boils on a pharaoh's face drew giggles from students sitting at four tables and decked to the hilt in party dresses and shirts and ties. Even the girls wore handmade yarmulkes.

There were Hebrew prayers and explanations from a class booklet with passages read the traditional way, from right to left.

And there was the traditional Seder food.

``We have to eat it?'' 11th-grader Melissa Boca said of the parsley included in the meal to commemorate the bitter herbs the Jews ate to symbolize the bitterness of their plight.

Dipping it in salt water to symbolize the greenery that came to life in the spring drew a grimace from senior T.J. Webb.

Lucky there was ``wine'' to wash it down - in the form of Welch's (of course) grape juice and a few other stretches, including Wild Cherry Pepsi.

Sandy Carranza, also a senior, was fascinated by the Seder.

``You don't do this every day,'' she said. ``I might never do this again, but I'll never forget the story and what the Passover means.''

After the food came the feast. Students said they spent 10 or 12 hours researching recipes, shopping and cooking. They hunted for traditional recipes on the Internet, asked their moms' friends and poured through cookbooks.

Senior Sean Berent explained his brisket recipe.

``You put it in one of those metal pans and put Lipton onion soup mix on it,'' Berent said. ``You put it in the cooking bag and smear the whole cranberry sauce on it. It's pretty good.''

Looking around the room, senior Summer Williams was impressed.

``This all makes the story come alive,'' Williams said. ``It makes you understand it and remember it.''

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PHOTO Canyon High teacher Harry Welch organized an elaborate classroom Seder for his Bible as literature students on Friday.

Eric Grigorian/Special to the Daily News