Wed April 8, 2009

“In this great future, you can’t forget your past.”
Bob Marley – No Women No Cry

Chag Pesach. Happy Passover. I say it with forced bravado as, truthfully, my Passover holiday lacks a certain festive liveliness.

I may be the only Jew on Pohnpei. I suspect that there must be one or two more but my attempts to locate them have been unsuccessful. New to the island and just starting to get to know the ex-pat community, it felt strange to make inquiries of a religious nature but I last week I started to.

“Hey, ummm, I’m Jewish and the Passover holiday begins next week. It would be nice to find some other Jews to celebrate it with. Do you happen to know of anyone else here who might be Jewish?” I found myself asking a Peace Corp worker.

“None that I know of but I’ll ask around,” she replied, “I know there is a lawyer here named Ira, he might be.” The benefit of growing up in New York, she knew the telltale signs. It turns out Ira wasn’t and her other inquiries revealed no hidden members of the tribe.

“Listen this is going to sound like an odd thing to ask but since your name is Jonathon and you’re from New York, I was wondering if you happened to be Jewish. See the Passover holiday is beginning and….” I asked a guy I met at the bar Saturday night. He wasn’t. I suspected as much when I found out he was from Albany but it was worth a shot.

So, the single bulb burns diligently (yes, I really should buy more but I can’t bring myself to buy CFL bulbs at $5 a piece and I’m less inclined to buy standard bulbs) providing a minimum amount of light. The ceiling fan throbs and squeaks dutifully. The house is empty and I sit here by myself typing away at the kitchen table.

Still though, I find no reason to permit my self-imposed exile on Pohnpei to hinder me from observing the holiday. The primary symbolic element of the holiday is matzah and the essence of the holiday is the concept of liberation/freedom. So tonight I’ll recognize the holiday in a different way.

With Bob Marley ‘singing songs of freedom’ in the background, I’ll bake my own matzah and spend the night contemplating the essence of freedom.

Won’t you help to sing, these songs of freedom
Cause all I ever have, redemption songs, redemption songs, redemption songs

Emancipate you selves from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds

Won’t you help to sing, these songs of freedom
Cause all I ever had, redemption songs
All I ever had, redemption songs
These songs of freedom, songs of freedom
Bob Marley – Redemption Song