Rachel Ezra

Tonight is Rosh Hoshanna. This time of year, Rachel Ezra generally begins baking treats for us to eat when we break our fast on Yom Kippur. Last year, Rachel Ezra passed away so we will not enjoy her treats this year.

Rachel Ezra was a dear friend of my mother-in-law's. She was one of the Indian Jews that came to the United States after the war. She was a tiny lady -- under five feet tall with high, prominent cheek bones that gave her an air of elegance. She was very chatty and told great stories with her lilting Anglo/Indian accent and expressive eyes. She was the guest you always wanted to have at a dinner party.

I first met Rachel Ezra when I was in my mid-20's. For some reason, Rachel Ezra loved me. Whenever she saw me, she would squeeze my face so hard my teeth scratched the inside of my cheeks. "I love you, you know," she would say with her face all scrunched up like she was talking to a baby. She did this to me throughout the 20 years that I knew her.

One day while she was still in Calcutta, Rachel Ezra went to a sanitorium to a visit a friend who was hospitalized there. She was told by a nurse to wait in the lobby area to be brought to her friend. There was a young man sitting at a desk in the lobby area. The desk was equipped with a typewriter. The young man sat there typing with great focus and concentration. He did not look up when Rachel Ezra came into the lobby area. He just kept typing. He took one completed sheet of paper out of the typewriter and put in a fresh sheet of paper, all the while maintaining a steady, typing rhythm. She waited for quite a while during which the young man just kept typing.

Rachel Ezra, being curious (and bored with waiting) got up and tried to discreetly looking over the young man's shoulder to see if she could tell what he was tying. But she couldn't so she asked him, "What is it you are typing there? You have been at it for long time already."

"A letter," he replied hastily, never stopping to type while he responded.

"A letter to who?" Rachel Ezra asked.

"To myself," he said.

"Oh," said Rachel Ezra, "and what does this letter say?"

In a thoroughly exasperated voice, he replied, "How the hell should I know woman! I have not yet received it!"