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Steven Weinberg

PhD Student at Rutgers University

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Nov 9, 2022, 4:02 AM

The Ancient Morality of Abraham, or Why You Shouldn’t be a “Nice Guy”

Some time during the first half of the last decade, I worked in a law firm in Philadelphia. It was one of those huge office buildings in the middle of the city. The building was filled with lawyers, not...

Oct 18, 2022, 9:23 PM

We need a Jewish Renaissance; We need to read the Torah

It is not exactly a coincidence that the Renaissance first occurred in Italy. Italy was, after all, the headquarters of the Roman Empire and the great classical civilization it left behind. It is commonly said that, in Rome, one...

Oct 7, 2022, 11:39 AM

Haftarah Ha’azinu: If we can curse like Faust, we can thank like King David

Gratitude is an art which we ought to cultivate. When asked what we are thankful for, our answers tend to be clumsy, cliché, and overgeneralized. If thankfulness were a musical instrument, our song would sound like “Chopsticks.” One common...

Sep 30, 2022, 1:43 PM

Haftarah Shabbat Shuvah: Rethinking Lebanon Not as Territory, But as ‘Terroir’

When I meet new people in Berlin—which happens far too often—there is one particular question I always dread receiving. Where are you from? Where you from, man? they ask me. I have yet to come up with a significantly...

Sep 16, 2022, 2:10 PM

Over Two Millennia after Isaiah, Israel Is ‘Tipping’ Again

Albert Einstein once said—or so legend has it—that “compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe.” Einstein knew quite a bit about how to create “powerful forces” from near scratch. He understood that infinitesimally small atoms, when...

Sep 9, 2022, 2:50 PM

Haftarah Ki Teitzei: Why the only thing we should be ashamed of is shame itself

Life Tip #48: Don’t Say “Sorry” Isaiah 54:1-10 “Oh, I am so ashamed!” Ironically, when someone utters these words, he or she is not really ashamed. To admit shame so blatantly demonstrates a lack of shame, or at least a discarding of shame....

Sep 1, 2022, 7:52 AM

Shoftim: The Torah’s Deromanticization of Law

About seven or eight years ago, I worked in Philadelphia as an attorney. In one case, I was handling a case in which an elderly woman slipped and fell on some ice outside of a building. My client was...

Aug 26, 2022, 1:09 PM

Haftarah Re’eh: How the Word ‘Shalom’ Implores Us to Budget

Life Tip #46 Budget Everything Isaiah 54:11 – 55:5 In the Beatles song, “You Never Give Me Your Money,” Paul McCartney sings: “And oh, that magic feeling, nowhere to go. And oh, that magic feeling, nowhere to go—nowhere to go.” With these...

Aug 11, 2022, 3:54 PM

Haftarah Va’etchanan: Isaiah’s Advice to Seinfeld to Become a Grasshopper

In season six, episode four of Seinfeld, Kramer decides to stop wearing boxers or briefs or… anything. He just wears his pants. He recently learned that he has a low sperm count and that briefs—what he’d been wearing all...

Aug 5, 2022, 11:50 AM

Haftarah Devarim: Why the cucumber belongs in the Israeli salad

Learning a foreign language can make human existence feel both invigoratingly sacred and devastatingly artificial. The history of language is like an ellipse. Let us compare Hebrew and English as an example. English and Hebrew are not the same...

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About Me

Steven Weinberg is a PhD student at Rutgers University in the German Department. His dissertation is on Franz Kafka and the Kabbalah. He grew up in Philadelphia, but moved to Israel in his late twenties, where he studied literature at Ben-Gurion University. Currently, Steven lives in Berlin, but travels to Israel and America as often as he can. His blog is based off his podcast, The Schrift, a weekly lecture series on Torah, German literature, and meditation. The Schrift is available on Apple and Spotify platforms.

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