# Yiddish Translation, Please: Beginning of Weird Al's Pretty Fly for a Rabbi

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yiddish-translation-please-beginning-of-weird-als-pretty-fly-for-a-rabbi/590489>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 27, 2011, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yiddish-translation-please-beginning-of-weird-als-pretty-fly-for-a-rabbi/590489 "2011-07-27T14:58:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yiddish-translation-please-beginning-of-weird-als-pretty-fly-for-a-rabbi/590489/1 "2011-07-27T14:58:17Z")

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[![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/flcnIVDCnFA/hqdefault.jpg "Weird Al Yankovich: Pretty Fly for a Rabbi Lyrics") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flcnIVDCnFA)

The person who made video obviously did a poor job of transliterating, because google translate couldn’t make any sense out of it.

Thanks!

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**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yiddish-translation-please-beginning-of-weird-als-pretty-fly-for-a-rabbi/590489/2 "2011-07-27T16:40:18Z")

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Apparently, “You should turn into a blintz,” according to the comments, and that is also the title of a book on Jewish humor. I’m assuming it’s a punchline to a Jewish joke or a folk tale or something?

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**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yiddish-translation-please-beginning-of-weird-als-pretty-fly-for-a-rabbi/590489/3 "2011-07-27T16:46:21Z")

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I mischaracterized the book as being on humor–it’s a book on Jewish “insights, barbs, and wiseguy remarks.” Further googling “turn into a blintz” suggests a better sounding translation: “May you turn into a blintz.”

[From Google Books](http://books.google.com/books?id=KSEkyUZOxG0C&pg=PA90&lpg=PA90&dq=%22may+you+turn+into+a+blintz%22&source=bl&ots=oeku29w7Se&sig=gx4VYxZ7gRWxc7SB6I0XwRDfK8E&hl=en&ei=AUAwTo2WO-zgsQLeucmPAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22may%20you%20turn%20into%20a%20blintz%22&f=false), the full saying:

> [@](#):
>
> May you turn into a blintz, and may your enemy turn into a cat, and may he eat you up and choke on you, so so we can be rid of you both.

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**Author:** ![Anchuldigs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Anchuldigs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anchuldigs)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yiddish-translation-please-beginning-of-weird-als-pretty-fly-for-a-rabbi/590489/4 "2011-07-27T17:56:34Z")

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“From you will be a _blinsa_” I don’t think it is grammatically correct and I don’t know what a “blintsa” is. It might be a [blintz](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blintz) but I don’t see how that makes sense. Unless Blintz is slang for something.