Jennifer has this little toy rabbit

[conuly]

I call it a rabbit, it's all blue and red and I think it's from Guatemala. Regardless, she's had it for a long time, and recently Evangeline glommed onto it.

She calls it "Rabbi", a name I vehemently oppose for the obvious reason. So when I'm around now she calls it "Rabbie" or "Rat-eye" instead.

Not that these names are much better, but I can't really fathom her carrying around a decidedly non-kosher toy animal, throwing it up into the air, and calling it "Rabbi".

And as I explained my reasoning to her, again, that it's just coincidentally mildly inappropriate, her sister got in on the act.

Ana: It doesn't have to mean that!
Me: Well, it kinda does. There's only one word that sounds like rabbi, and that's rabbi, and...
Ana: It's also a disease!
Me: What? Okay, no, it's not.
Ana: Yes! Rabbis! It's a disease!
Me: Not that it'd be any better if it were a disease, but no. There's no disease "rabbis".
Ana: Yes there is!
Me: They're Jewish people! It's not a sickness!
Ana: Yes it is! You know, rabbis?

As she said the last I glanced over at her, very frustrated at this inanity, to see her waving her hands at her mouth.

Me: No it's - wait. Do you mean rabies?
Ana: RABBIS!
Me: R - a - b - i - e - s is rabies, sweetie.
Ana: Oh. Well, anyway, it doesn't matter!

Comments

[siderea]

I can't really fathom her carrying around a decidedly non-kosher toy animal [...] and calling it "Rabbi".

Connie, hon, human isn't a kosher animal either, yet I'm pretty sure I've heard of a rabbi or two who was that species. Heck, legend has it Hillel was an H. sapiens.

May I suggest now would be a great time to introduce the children's book The Rabbi and the Twenty-Nine Witches?

[conuly]

Well, even if it were a cow I wouldn't like her calling it "Rabbi"! It just seems so weird to me.

And at least human milk is kosher. Bunny milk isn't, right?

[siderea]

...Where I'm from, we're not generally concerned with the edibility of rabbis. Maybe things are different where you are.

[conuly]

Hey, things get bad enough, it's every woman for herself!

[adrian_turtle]

Human milk has a special status. It's kosher, and technically defined as pareve. This is logically justifiable on the theory that human meat is defined as non-food, and human milk is defined as non-food for adults. So If somebody mixes human milk with porridge to feed a baby, and accidentally does it with a spoon that's supposed to be for meat, it's ok...They can just wash the spoon, they don't have to go through the whole kashering process. (And households with babies have plenty of disorder already; saving them hassle seems worth a bit of strained logic.)

Bunny milk is not kosher for human beings. It's perfectly fine for baby bunnies to drink. Does Ana's rabbit have kits? If not, I wouldn't expect milk to be a concern.

[conuly]

It's a toy rabbit. Thankfully, as I wouldn't allow them to treat a real rabbit they way they treat their toy!

I just feel really weird about having a toy called Rabbi. The fact that it's a rabbit makes it weirder.

[siderea]

P.S. You know what that bunny needs? A little yarmulke. Also explain she can't play with it from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, because that's Rabbi Bunny's day off.

[siderea]

Correction: I just learned it's not Sephardic tradition to wear a yarmulke all the time, so, since the bunny is Guatemalan, maybe not with the kippah. Or make it removable.

[conuly]

*grin*

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

On the entrance exam for new policemen, they ask "What are rabies and what can be done about them?" Ryan wrote, "Rabies is Jewish priests and there ain't nothing you can do about them."

Leo Rosten

[conuly]

Well, really, what did they expect? Rabies is an "is" not an "are", an "it" instead of a "them". When you misapply plural forms, you gotta expect some people will think you just can't spell.