The eight-day Jewish holiday of Passover begins Friday, and local congregations are hosting community dinners this week in observance.

As related in the Book of Exodus, Passover commemorates the liberation of the Jews, under Moses’s leadership, from slavery in Egypt thousands of years ago. And it also marks the coming of spring and serves as a time of personal reflection, said Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel, executive director of Kansas University’s Chabad House.

During the first two nights of Passover families and friends celebrate with a Seder dinner, Tiechtel said. Both the Chabad Center, 1201 W. 19th St., and the Lawrence Jewish Community Congregation, 917 Highland Drive, will host Seder dinners this week.

“It’s a 15-step, family-oriented tradition and ritual-packed feast,” he said. “There is lots of good food, traditions, tremendous meaning and layers. There are stories we share, verses we read and values we hold.”

Seder is meant for Jews to re-experience being freed from Egypt, but it is also meant as a time to consider current limitations and distractions, said Rabbi Moti Rieber of the Lawrence Jewish Community Congregation.

Rieber said the Hebrew word for Egypt, Mitzrayim, translates to “narrow place,” a meaning still relevant today.

“It’s an opportunity to think about the places where we find difficulties, where we feel oppression and where we are sympathetic with the people who feel oppression in this day and age,” he said. “We talk about the modern plagues, like homophobia, which is so much in the news today, especially in Indiana. Or we talk about racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia –these places where there are hatred and difficulties.”

Both Rieber and Tiechtel noted that Passover is one of the most commonly celebrated traditions of their religion, and their congregations’ Seder dinners are open for all to attend and share in the history of the Jewish people.

“It’s a story about the past, but it’s also a story about the ongoing liberation of human beings,” Rieber said. “Wherever freedom is not found we try to work towards it.”

Community Seder at the Chabad Center will be at 7:45 p.m. Friday and 8:15 p.m. Saturday. Those who wish to attend may RSVP at www.hawkseder.com or by calling 832-8672.

Seder at the Lawrence Jewish Community Congregation will be at 6 p.m. Saturday. Those who wish to attend may RSVP by calling 841-7636.