The rabbi is standing at the head dinner table giving a speech in Yiddish. His associate endeavors to translate the rabbi’s remarks into English—“Der rebbe sagt, that is, the rabbi says . . . .”
It’s a funny joke that I can’t retell here because it needs to be performed. Racking my brain, I believe that I heard it performed by Harry Richman* on the Ed Sullivan Show.
I bring it up now because I think we’re in a “Rebbe Sagt” moment in time.
* On second thought, it could have been Lou Holtz, who appeared once on the Sullivan show.
*
“My favorite moment in Donald Trump’s trip to France,” Gail Collins wrote the other day in the New York Times,”
came when our president was doing a little riff about North Korea and Kim Jong-un. Not only had he come to know Kim well, Trump told reporters, “the first lady has gotten to know Kim Jong-un and I think she’d agree with me, he is a man with a country that has tremendous potential.”(1)
As Ms. Collins went on to note, however, Melania Trump has never met the North Korean boss. “Paging the cleanup crew.” Or, get some toady to offer a Trumpian version of “Der Rebbe Sagt”:
“President Trump confides in his wife on many issues including the detailed elements of his strong relationship with Chairman Kim,” his press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, explained. “And while the first lady hasn’t met him, the president feels like she’s gotten to know him too.”
Ms. Collins gave us another example of a “Rebbe Sagt” moment. Questioned about his wavering position on China trade, Trump replied, “I have second thoughts about everything.”
Again Ms. Grisham had to clear her throat and explain what the rebbe president
The president responded in the affirmative — because he regrets not raising the tariffs higher.
Perhaps Trump might have more success speaking in Yiddish.
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