The girl with the Hebrew tattoo

HOWARD SACKSTEIN

“Why on earth are you looking for Rachel?” I enquired from the most dogged journalist I have ever encountered. When Peta sets her sights on a story, no one ever stands in her way. She forwarded the picture of Rachel’s tattoo – the Hebrew words Gam Ze Yavo, which means “this too shall pass”. Why was Rachel the girl with the Hebrew tattoo?

Fearing that I would never survive disappointing Peta, I immediately consulted Facebook. Surely Rachel and I would have common friends? After all, I am the man with one degree of separation to every other human being on the planet. But no, we shared not a single friend. I could get to US President Donald Trump in two steps; I had Dr Ruth, Ben Zander, Dan Ariely and President Cyril Ramaphosa on my speed dial, but no Rachel Kolisi.

Rachel is a full-time mother to her and Siya’s four children; she probably never leaves the house. She is a Christian, so I certainly wouldn’t know her from synagogue. She has had to fight off the toxic world of social media, whose trolls have accused her of “contaminating the white race” by marrying the towering, handsome hulk that is the Springbok captain. Maybe she has just withdrawn a bit from the world.

Morose with defeat in failing to track down Rachel, I went to Paranga restaurant in Camps Bay to eat away the emptiness inside me and drink double shots of Scotland’s finest. And there, at the table next to me, were Siya and Rachel having dinner with Jürgen Klopp, manager of Liverpool soccer club, and Faf du Plessis, captain of the Proteas cricket team.

The restaurant was abuzz. Everyone wanted a photo of Siya, some wanted a picture with Jürgen, everybody ignored Faf.

This was my opportunity, so I made a beeline straight for Rachel. “Hi Rachel, I’m Howard Sackstein from the SA Jewish Report, and I want to talk about your Hebrew tattoo.”

She looked puzzled before bursting out laughing. “Yes, I wore a dress recently and you could see the tattoo,” she said.

“But why do you have a Hebrew tattoo?” I asked.

“I had it done about six years ago,” said Rachel. “It was something close to my heart, so I wanted to have it done.”

To the question of whether it has any special meaning, she answered: “Not really.” Then I asked her whether she would take a selfie with me. It seemed that everyone wanted a picture with Siya, and no one was asking Rachel. I didn’t do it out of pity – it just seemed like the right thing to do. So Rachel and I selfied together, and in the process, I pushed Jürgen’s wife out of the way, nearly sending her tumbling over the restaurant table.

There was no way I wasn’t going to take a selfie with Siya too. And so, the most photographed man in the country had a picture taken with Siya. I hope he posts it to Instagram soon so that he can get more adoration and likes.