Freedom Feasts : Passover: Hours of careful ritual and 3,000 years of tradition go into meals that celebrate the Jews’ liberation from slavery in Egypt.

It was an 81-year-old tradition for Reva Fields. It was a 7-year-old one for Tony Morales.

Both were in their kitchens Friday afternoon. Both were slaving over Passover feasts that would commemorate the liberation of Jews from slavery in ancient Egypt.

Fields was preparing gefilte fish and haroseth for 20 at her son’s home in Beverly Hills. Morales was roasting chicken and simmering matzo ball soup for 320 across town at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

The Passover holiday began at sunset Friday. It is an eight-day holiday for traditional Jews and a seven-day event for Reform Jews such as Fields, whose son, Rabbi Harvey Fields, heads the 8,000-member Wilshire Boulevard Temple.

The start of Passover was a hectic time for Morales, who is banquet chef at the Beverly Hilton--and is a Catholic.

Morales assigned 25 chefs and cooks to work two days to prepare for Friday night’s 320-guest dinner--called a Seder--in the hotel’s grand ballroom. Others were delegated to prepare Passover dinners for five smaller groups that booked other banquet rooms Friday evening and tonight. Friday’s large dinner was organized as a congregational event by the Wilshire Boulevard Temple.

“Ordinarily, eight or 10 people here could prepare a banquet this size in one day,” Morales said, as he dashed from a row of hot racks of roasted chicken to a walk-in refrigerator containing 320 covered Seder plates. On each was a peeled hard-boiled egg, parsley, fresh horseradish and balls of haroseth--a mixture of fruit, nuts and wine--to be eaten during the ritual portion of the meal.

“But with this, there is so much tradition. It is special. It is a very special day. Everything has to be just right.”

The hotel cooks took precautions to prevent Passover food from coming in contact with dairy products, flour and bread--all of which are forbidden during the holiday. A few blocks away at her son’s house, Reva Fields was grating apples for her own haroseth next to cabinet doors that had been taped shut. That was to make certain the same forbidden products and utensils used with them were kept away from Seder food.

Fields, 81, arrived from Portland last week to help her son and daughter-in-law, Sybil Fields, begin preparing the family’s Passover dinner. It will be served to 20 family members tonight--including granddaughters Rachel and Debra, who have traveled from Tel Aviv and Washington, D.C., for the meal.

“I look forward to it. I enjoy coming early to help every year,” Reva Fields said. She said the work is delegated in the family kitchen, just as in Morales’ kitchen.

“The gefilte fish is hardest. It’s seasoned ground fish . . . it takes hours. I make it,” she said. Her daughter-in-law is in charge of the roasted turkey, her son handles the haroseth, her grandchildren prepare roasted eggs, cakes and other dishes.

“It’s probably one of the most magnificent rituals that I know of for bonding a family together,” Rabbi Fields said Friday afternoon before exchanging his apron for formal clothes to wear to the hotel dinner.

And that is why his temple sponsors the annual Beverly Hilton dinner, picking up the $47-per-plate fee for those who cannot afford it. This year that includes 40 recently arrived Russian Jews who have never before celebrated the 3,000-year-old Passover ritual.

The Seder Plate The Passover Seder, which commemorates the Jewish people’s flight from slavery in ancient Egypt, is a highly ritualized meal. A special plate is prepared with each element serving as a symbol.

PARSLEY: Green herbs represent springtime growth, hope and renewal.

ROASTED EGG: The egg’s oval shape stands for eternal life.

ROASTED SHANK BONE: The bone symbolizes the paschal lamb of ancient times.

BITTER HERBS: Horseradish is a reminder of the bitter lot of life in bondage.

HAROSETH: The mixture of fruit, nuts and wine symbolizes the mortar the Jews used to make bricks in Egypt.

SALT WATER: The water is a reminder of the tears of enslavement.