David S. Zinberg, at The Blogs

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Sep 10, 2020, 10:28 PM

For the love of God

In a year defined by its compound anxieties — medical, racial, political, and economic — we are in the most anxious month on the Jewish calendar. Lacking much of an independent identity, Elul is the final stretch of the religious year and a prelude to...

May 19, 2020, 7:08 PM

What does cheese have to do with Mount Sinai?

Lacking the distinctive rituals of Sukkot and Passover, Shavuot still has dairy — especially cheese. It wasn’t always this way. While it may often seem like the Shavuot cheesecake is on par with matzah at the Seder, the dairy custom is a relative newcomer, first...

Mar 23, 2020, 3:24 AM

A cruel and unusual theology

It must have been very hard to pay Job a shiva call. What can you say to someone who has just lost everything? All ten children killed in a single day. A prodigious estate decimated by bandits and fire. Then, to deepen his sorrow, indignity,...

Jan 27, 2019, 9:56 PM

The 13th month: An appreciation

This year, an additional month of holiday whitespace separates the usual four weeks between Tu Bishevat and Purim. We are in a Jewish leap year, with 13 instead of 12 lunar months, one of seven in every 19-year cycle. (The technical term is “embolismic” or...

Sep 3, 2018, 6:40 AM

The unintended ritual

What thoughts and feelings should accompany the shofar on Rosh Hashanah? Or is this even a valid question? Is there a “right” motivation for any religious ritual? If, for example, hearing the shofar is purely an esthetic experience, without the slightest devotional content, is that...

Jun 30, 2017, 3:40 AM

A great Judeo-Christian nation?

Orthodox Jews and orthodox Christians may view each other as natural allies. Large segments of both groups tend to be social conservatives with a shared belief in a divinely sanctioned model of marriage and family. Both are unwavering in their support for Israel. And the...

Mar 6, 2017, 4:39 AM

Fools for a day

For centuries, the ancient German city of Worms was a center of Jewish life and learning. The community built its first synagogue in 1034 and by the middle of the seventeenth century, the Jews of Worms had developed a distinctive set of religious practices, many...

Jan 16, 2017, 2:15 PM

A patriot’s prayer

Jewish communities in pre-Emancipation Europe were beholden to rulers who permitted them to reside and conduct commerce within their borders. In return, the Jews were generally expected to provide capital and financial services to the royal estate and the local economy. Only the benevolence of...

Nov 21, 2016, 7:51 AM

Normalize Thanksgiving

If years were paintings, ours would hang prominently in the Gallery of the Grotesquely Not Normal. But a few weeks still remain. As the year draws to a close, Thanksgiving may have arrived just in time to restore some sorely needed normalcy to American life....

Sep 27, 2016, 5:10 AM

Look for the union label

In a grassroots effort to promote financial transparency in yeshiva day school education, an unofficial listing of tuition and fees has been circulated online. Aside from the numbers, which have become nearly all-important to many parents who send their children to yeshiva, the shared spreadsheet...

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About Me

David Zinberg lives in Teaneck, NJ with his wife and three sons and works in financial services.