We were close friends and I had a tremendous admiration for him as a writer, poet, and singer – as a man. I didn't sit at his feet or anything like that, but I learned a great amount from him because I had the opportunity of a close friend who was a generation older than me, and so in a very effortless way I was able to see how he got through his years, his life.
Thanks Leonard for contributing to the soundtrack of our lives for half a century. As the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inscribed in 2008:
"For six decades, Leonard Cohen revealed his soul to the world through poetry and song—his deep and timeless humanity touching our very core. Simply brilliant. His music and words will resonate forever. "
And here's a loving, beautiful commemoration of my friend Leonard by Rabbi Brian Field...
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| "Like a bird on a wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir, I have tried in my way to be free." L.C., Bird on the Wire |
Leonard Cohen: A Loving Appreciation
By Rabbi Brian Field (2017)On November 7, 2016, Leonard Cohen died. He was 82. As most who have participated in our High Holy Day services know, we have included songs of Leonard Cohen for the past several years. But the very first work of Leonard Cohen that we included was not one of his songs, but a poem that evokes so eloquently the central theme of the High Holy Days – turning, or in the Hebrew, teshuvah:
I lost my way
I forgot to call on your name.
The raw heart beats against the world,
And the tears were for my lost victory.
But you are here.
You have always been here.
The world is all forgetting,
And the heart is a rage of directions,
But your name unifies the heart,
And the world is lifted into its place.
Blessed is the one
Who waits in the traveler’s heart for his turning.
(Poem #50, from The Book of Mercy)
In the weeks since his passing, there has been an outpouring of tributes to Leonard Cohen, and particularly in the national Jewish press, a highlighting of his most Jewish songs. I’d like to add my own perspective about his songs that strike me as having a particularly powerful Jewish spiritual voice. Some of these songs we’ve sung at JYW services, but not all. Some are well known and some less so.
In the weeks since his passing, there has been an outpouring of tributes to Leonard Cohen, and particularly in the national Jewish press, a highlighting of his most Jewish songs. I’d like to add my own perspective about his songs that strike me as having a particularly powerful Jewish spiritual voice. Some of these songs we’ve sung at JYW services, but not all. Some are well known and some less so.
1. "Halleluyah" (Various Positions)
Of course, the first song of Leonard Cohen that most people think of is Halleluyah. The song begins by evoking the Biblical King David, the traditional author of the Book of Psalms, in a very mystical way–
Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord.
But my favorite verse is one that is often not included in performances of the song:
You say I took the name in vain.
I don’t even know the name
But if I did, then really what’s it to you?
There’s a blaze of light in every word
It doesn’t matter which you heard.
The holy or the broken Halleluyah.
To me, “the name” is a reference to the Jewish way of speaking of God – Ha-Shem, Hebrew for, the name, or The Name. In Jewish spirituality, Ha-Shem refers to Y-H-W-H, the deepest sacred name for God – which conventionally gets pronounced Adonai, meaning, My Lord. In ancient times, this Name was pronounced once a year by the High Priest on Yom Kippur in the Holy of Holies, the very center of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. But following the destruction of the Temple by the Romans and the dispersion and exile of the Jewish people, the knowledge of how to pronounce The Name became lost. Perhaps that was the secret chord that King David played.
This is an insight that is deeper than thoughts or feelings or beliefs. It’s even deeper than good or bad. There’s a blaze of light in it all. And in that insight, we see that the holy is the broken. It is all one.
I have always found “Night Comes On” to be deeply spiritual and mystical in a Jewish way. However, perhaps because the song contains nothing that is explicitly Jewish, it has never been included in lists of Cohen’s Jewish songs. Here’s my case for why it should be:
I went down to the place where I knew she lay waiting
Under the marble and the snow I said,
Mother I’m frightened, the thunder and the lightning
I’ll never come through this alone.
She said, I’ll be with you, my shawl wrapped around you
My hand on your head when you go
And the night came on, it was very calm
I wanted the night to go on and on
But she said, go back, go back to the world.
This song evokes for me two deeply Jewish spiritual tropes. The first is the figure of the Mother, the Divine Feminine or, in Judaism, the Shechinah. She wraps her shawl around the singer, the way Jews wrap ourselves in the tallit. She places her hand on his head, the way Jewish parents bless our children on Shabbat.
Secondly, the singer wants “the night to go on and on.” In other words, he seems to want to escape, to cloister himself, to use his spirituality to disengage from the world. This theme pervades much of the song: In the third verse, the singer admits that “I needed so much to have nothing to touch, I’ve always been greedy that way.” In the fourth verse, the singer, “lost in his calling” and “tied to the threads of some prayer,” wonders when She, the Shechinah, will come to him. And in the final verse, the singer cries out, “I want to cross over, I want to go home, but She says, “Go back, go back to the world.”
That’s precisely the Jewish way – to “go back to the world.” There are no monasteries in Judaism. Jews have always been encouraged to engage the world rather than retreat from it. And even when it comes to the study of Jewish mystical texts, Jewish tradition requires that one be at least 40 years old, employed and married with children, that is, fully engaged in the world, before one is permitted to begin.
Secondly, the singer wants “the night to go on and on.” In other words, he seems to want to escape, to cloister himself, to use his spirituality to disengage from the world. This theme pervades much of the song: In the third verse, the singer admits that “I needed so much to have nothing to touch, I’ve always been greedy that way.” In the fourth verse, the singer, “lost in his calling” and “tied to the threads of some prayer,” wonders when She, the Shechinah, will come to him. And in the final verse, the singer cries out, “I want to cross over, I want to go home, but She says, “Go back, go back to the world.”
That’s precisely the Jewish way – to “go back to the world.” There are no monasteries in Judaism. Jews have always been encouraged to engage the world rather than retreat from it. And even when it comes to the study of Jewish mystical texts, Jewish tradition requires that one be at least 40 years old, employed and married with children, that is, fully engaged in the world, before one is permitted to begin.
In my opinion, “If It Be Your Will,” Cohen’s prayer for healing, is one of his most tightly written and musically exquisite songs. With verses like, “Let the rivers fill, let the hills rejoice,” Cohen has grounded his prayer in the imagery of the Biblical psalms.
“If It Be Your Will” rests in an awareness that we humans are not in charge, an insight that is both obvious when one stops to think about it, and at the same time, something of which we are usually in deep denial. But not Cohen:
If it be Your will
that I sing no more
That my voice be still
as it was before.
I will sing no more.
I shall abide until.
I am spoken for.
If it be Your will.
As Rabbi Maurice Lamm writes in his book, The Jewish Way of Death, life is a day that lies between two nights – the night of “not yet,” before birth, and the night of “no more,” after death. We emerge out of the eternal silence of the “not yet” into life. And at death, we slip back into “no more,” our voices silent as they were before.
But healing does not only imply making peace with one’s mortality. Healing is also our response to frailty in life, both physical and moral. The deepest prayer and the most powerful art for that matter must, in some way, speak the truth.
If it be Your will, that a voice be true
From this broken hill, I will sing to You.
When I heard that Cohen had died, “If It Be Your Will” was what first came to mind.
4. "Who By Fire?" (New Skin for the Old Ceremony)
Similar to “If It Be Your Will,” “Who By Fire?” is based on the awareness that we are not in charge – an insight most eloquently expressed in the High Holy Day prayer “Unetaneh Tokef.” Here’s how the traditional prayer puts it:
Similar to “If It Be Your Will,” “Who By Fire?” is based on the awareness that we are not in charge – an insight most eloquently expressed in the High Holy Day prayer “Unetaneh Tokef.” Here’s how the traditional prayer puts it:
You set a limit for every creature’s life
And determine each one’s destiny.
On Rosh HaShanah it is written
And on Yom Kippur it is sealed:
How many shall pass away
And how many shall be born,
Who shall live and who shall die
Who in the fullness of years
And who before her time.
Who by fire and who by water…
This last line of the traditional liturgy is how Cohen begins his song. And the list of fates he describes is a contemporary update to that found in the traditional liturgy. But “Who By Fire” is not just an update on the tradition. At the conclusion of each of the three stanzas, Cohen adds a line not found in the liturgy but reflects a question that so many of us are asking, a line that, in my mind, can be read three ways: casually, agnostically and mystically:
Who shall I say is calling?
One can imagine a secretary answering the phone and taking a message, in response to the Divine decree: “Hello…no, he’s not here…is there a message? And who shall I say is calling?”
Is there a God who is calling? If not, then who is? Or perhaps more to the point, who shall I say it is? Cohen revisits the mystery, the not knowing the Sacred Name that we already observed in "Halleluyah".
Finally, one can read this from a mystical perspective. In the Kabbalah, Who is a name for God, a name that points to the emptiness (in Hebew: Ayin) out of which everything arises, and into which everything falls.
And determine each one’s destiny.
On Rosh HaShanah it is written
And on Yom Kippur it is sealed:
How many shall pass away
And how many shall be born,
Who shall live and who shall die
Who in the fullness of years
And who before her time.
Who by fire and who by water…
This last line of the traditional liturgy is how Cohen begins his song. And the list of fates he describes is a contemporary update to that found in the traditional liturgy. But “Who By Fire” is not just an update on the tradition. At the conclusion of each of the three stanzas, Cohen adds a line not found in the liturgy but reflects a question that so many of us are asking, a line that, in my mind, can be read three ways: casually, agnostically and mystically:
Who shall I say is calling?
One can imagine a secretary answering the phone and taking a message, in response to the Divine decree: “Hello…no, he’s not here…is there a message? And who shall I say is calling?”
Is there a God who is calling? If not, then who is? Or perhaps more to the point, who shall I say it is? Cohen revisits the mystery, the not knowing the Sacred Name that we already observed in "Halleluyah".
Finally, one can read this from a mystical perspective. In the Kabbalah, Who is a name for God, a name that points to the emptiness (in Hebew: Ayin) out of which everything arises, and into which everything falls.
5. "Born in Chains" (Popular Problems)
For some reason, this song tends not to make the “most Jewish” lists. But it most definitely makes mine!
The song begins with imagery out of the story of the Exodus from Egypt, the foundational story of Jewish spirituality and peoplehood:
I was born in chains but I was taken out of Egypt.
I was bound to a burden, but the burden it was raised.
Oh Lord I can no longer keep this secret.
Blessed is the Name, the Name be praised.
I fled to the edge of a mighty sea of sorrow.
Pursued by the riders of a cruel and dark regime
But the waters parted and my soul crossed over.
Out of Egypt, out of Pharaoh’s dream.
The song continues with a chorus grounded in Jewish mysticism:
Word of word and measure of all measures
Blessed is the Name, the Name be blessed
Written on my heart in burning letters.
That’s all I know. I do not know the rest.
So much Jewish spirituality is packed into these four lines: The second line of the chorus evokes the Barchu – "Blessed is the One who is to be blessed.” In the third line, the phrase “written on my heart” evokes the passage in the Torah known as the V’Ahavata – “… and these words which I command you this day, shall be on your heart.”
But notice that the letters written upon his heart are burning, evoking both a sense of deep passion but also reflecting the mystical teaching that the Torah is not simply black ink written on white parchment but black fire inscribed on white fire. The image of burning letters evokes other images out of Jewish spirituality – the sacrifices through which ancient Jews expressed their connection to the Sacred, the ner tamid, the eternal flame, burning continuously in front of the Holy Ark in which the Torah Scrolls are housed, and of course, the burning bush out of which Moses encounters God near the beginning of the story of the Exodus, the bush that burned but did not burn up.
Interestingly, in a departure from “Halleluyah” and “Who By Fire,” Cohen now claims to know the Name, which he has discovered on his heart. But that’s all. The rest of the Mystery remains.
Having crossed the sea, the burden lifted, the singer searches for a spiritual path to follow. He meets with challenges. As he sings in the third verse, “I followed very closely but my life remained the same.” In the fourth verse, he is confused, lost on the road. His teachers tell him that he only has himself to blame. But eventually he gets it. Confusion and brokenness are not obstacles on the path. They are the path. In another nod to the Kabbalah’s teaching of the shattered vessels and the hidden sparks, he realizes that “in every atom, broken is the Name.” Ultimately, he allows a “sweet unknowing” to unify the Name.
6. "Anthem" (The Future)
The song “Anthem” has been a Judaism Your Way High Holy Days favorite for several years. Like his poem from Book of Mercy, “Anthem” lifts up the path of teshuvah (turning):
The birds they sang at the break of day
Start again, I heard them say.
At the heart of the song, once again, is the awareness of brokenness in our lives, the reason we need the practice of teshuvah in the first place.
Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
Many of us turn to spirituality as a last resort. It feels that because we are broken there must be something wrong with us. But brokenness is not an anomaly. Brokenness is the state of the universe. That is the insight of the Kabbalistic teaching of the shattering of the vessels at the start of Creation. Listen to these lines from the chorus:
There is a crack in everything.
That’s how the light gets in.
Teshuvah is the name Judaism gives to the practice of noticing the crack as it expresses itself in our lives, and through humility, forgiveness, and courage, allowing the light back in, not in spite of the brokenness, but through the brokenness. I can think of no purer description of the experience and goal of Yom Kippur than these final lines in "Anthem":
Every heart to love will come
But like a refugee.
Leonard Cohen’s death left a huge crack in the hearts of many throughout the world. May the light of his music and poetry bless us with the wisdom, humility and courage to sing our own holy and broken Halleluyah.
Some magic lyrics, written by Leonard Cohen with music by Buffy Sainte-Marie, who also sings it here:
God is alive, Magic is afoot
God is alive; Magic is afoot
God is afoot; Magic is alive
Alive is afoot.....
Magic never died.
God never sickened;
Start again, I heard them say.
At the heart of the song, once again, is the awareness of brokenness in our lives, the reason we need the practice of teshuvah in the first place.
Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
Many of us turn to spirituality as a last resort. It feels that because we are broken there must be something wrong with us. But brokenness is not an anomaly. Brokenness is the state of the universe. That is the insight of the Kabbalistic teaching of the shattering of the vessels at the start of Creation. Listen to these lines from the chorus:
There is a crack in everything.
That’s how the light gets in.
Teshuvah is the name Judaism gives to the practice of noticing the crack as it expresses itself in our lives, and through humility, forgiveness, and courage, allowing the light back in, not in spite of the brokenness, but through the brokenness. I can think of no purer description of the experience and goal of Yom Kippur than these final lines in "Anthem":
Every heart to love will come
But like a refugee.
Leonard Cohen’s death left a huge crack in the hearts of many throughout the world. May the light of his music and poetry bless us with the wisdom, humility and courage to sing our own holy and broken Halleluyah.
Brian Field
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| "I don't think of myself as a singer, writer, or any other thing. The job of being a man is much more than any of that." L. C. |
God is alive; Magic is afoot
God is afoot; Magic is alive
Alive is afoot.....
Magic never died.
God never sickened;
Many poor men lied
Many sick men lied
Magic never weakened
Magic never hid
Magic always ruled
God is afoot
God never died.
God was ruler
Though his funeral lengthened
Though his mourners thickened
Many sick men lied
Magic never weakened
Magic never hid
Magic always ruled
God is afoot
God never died.
God was ruler
Though his funeral lengthened
Though his mourners thickened
Magic never fled
Though his shrouds were hoisted
The naked God did live
Though his shrouds were hoisted
The naked God did live
Though his words were twisted
The naked Magic thrived
Though his death was published
Round and round the world
The heart did not believe
Many hurt men wondered
Many struck men bled
Magic never faltered
Magic always led.
Many stones were rolled
But God would not lie down
Many wild men lied
Many fat men listened
Though they offered stones
Magic still was fed
Though they locked their coffers
God was always served.
Magic is afoot. God rules.
Alive is afoot. Alive is in command.
The naked Magic thrived
Though his death was published
Round and round the world
The heart did not believe
Many hurt men wondered
Many struck men bled
Magic never faltered
Magic always led.
Many stones were rolled
But God would not lie down
Many wild men lied
Many fat men listened
Though they offered stones
Magic still was fed
Though they locked their coffers
God was always served.
Magic is afoot. God rules.
Alive is afoot. Alive is in command.
Many weak men hungered
Many strong men thrived
Though they boasted solitude
God was at their side
Nor the dreamer in his cell
Nor the captain on the hill
Many strong men thrived
Though they boasted solitude
God was at their side
Nor the dreamer in his cell
Nor the captain on the hill
Magic is alive
Though his death was pardoned
Round and round the world
The heart did not believe.
Though laws were carved in marble
They could not shelter men
Though altars built in parliaments
They could not order men
Though his death was pardoned
Round and round the world
The heart did not believe.
Though laws were carved in marble
They could not shelter men
Though altars built in parliaments
They could not order men
Police arrested Magic
And Magic went with them,
For Magic loves the hungry.
But Magic would not tarry
It moves from arm to arm
It would not stay with them
Magic is afoot
It cannot come to harm
It rests in an empty palm
It spawns in an empty mind
But Magic is no instrument
And Magic went with them,
For Magic loves the hungry.
But Magic would not tarry
It moves from arm to arm
It would not stay with them
Magic is afoot
It cannot come to harm
It rests in an empty palm
It spawns in an empty mind
But Magic is no instrument
Magic is the end.
Many men drove Magic
But Magic stayed behind
Many strong men lied
They only passed through Magic
Many men drove Magic
But Magic stayed behind
Many strong men lied
They only passed through Magic
And out the other side
Many weak men lied
They came to God in secret
And though they left him nourished
They would not say who healed
Though mountains danced before them
They said that God was dead
Though his shrouds were hoisted
The naked God did live
This I mean to whisper to my mind
This I mean to laugh with in my mind
This I mean my mind to serve 'til
Service is but Magic
Moving through the world
Many weak men lied
They came to God in secret
And though they left him nourished
They would not say who healed
Though mountains danced before them
They said that God was dead
Though his shrouds were hoisted
The naked God did live
This I mean to whisper to my mind
This I mean to laugh with in my mind
This I mean my mind to serve 'til
Service is but Magic
Moving through the world
And mind itself is Magic
Coursing through the flesh
And flesh itself is Magic
Dancing on a clock
And time itself the magic length of God.
...and some great quotes by Leonard Cohen.
Coursing through the flesh
And flesh itself is Magic
Dancing on a clock
And time itself the magic length of God.
...and some great quotes by Leonard Cohen.
YOU WANT IT DARKER (הִנֵּֽנִי = Hineni, "Here I am")
If you are the dealer, I'm out of the game
If you are the healer, it means I'm broken and lame
If thine is the glory then mine must be the shame
You want it darker
We kill the flame
If you are the healer, it means I'm broken and lame
If thine is the glory then mine must be the shame
You want it darker
We kill the flame
Magnified, sanctified, be thy holy name
Vilified, crucified, in the human frame
A million candles burning for the help that never came
You want it darker
Vilified, crucified, in the human frame
A million candles burning for the help that never came
You want it darker
Hineni, hineni [הִנֵּֽנִי = here I am]
I'm ready, my lord
I'm ready, my lord
There's a lover in the story
But the story's still the same
There's a lullaby for suffering
And a paradox to blame
But it's written in the scriptures
And it's not some idle claim
You want it darker
We kill the flame
But the story's still the same
There's a lullaby for suffering
And a paradox to blame
But it's written in the scriptures
And it's not some idle claim
You want it darker
We kill the flame
They're lining up the prisoners
And the guards are taking aim
I struggled with some demons
They were middle class and tame
I didn't know I had permission to murder and to maim
You want it darker
And the guards are taking aim
I struggled with some demons
They were middle class and tame
I didn't know I had permission to murder and to maim
You want it darker
(Also listen to a vibrant commentary of this song by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on video here: https://youtu.be/2s3kQSZ_Qxk)
Leonard Cohen's Greatest Hits:
and my page with Elliot Wolfson's article:
In 1967-70, Roy Allan of Simon Fraser University wrote a master's thesis entitled—
You may email me requesting a free copy (either in PDF or DOCX - please, specify).
- IL GIOCO PREFERITO (poesie e parole di Leonard)
- UNA CREPA DÀ LUCE (poeticizzando ancora con Leonard)
- The official one: Leonard Cohen
- Cohencentric: Leonard Cohen Considered
- The Leonard Cohen Files
Appropriately, I wish to conclude with the complete lyrics from ANTHEM, also translated freely in Italian / Voglio concludere con le parole della canzone ANTHEM (Inno), tradotte anche in italiano:
The
birds they sang
at the break of day Start again I heard them say Don't dwell on what has passed away or what is yet to be. Ah the wars they will be fought again The holy dove She will be caught again bought and sold and bought again the dove is never free. Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything That's how the light gets in. We asked for signs the signs were sent: the birth betrayed the marriage spent Yeah the widowhood of every government — signs for all to see. I can't run no more with that lawless crowd while the killers in high places say their prayers out loud. But they've summoned, they've summoned up a thundercloud and they're going to hear from me. Ring the bells that still can ring ...
You can add up the parts
but you won't have the sum You can strike up the march, there is no drum Every heart, every heart to love will come but like a refugee. Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack, a crack in everything That's how the light gets in. Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack, a crack in everything That's how the light gets in. That's how the light gets in. That's how the light gets in... |
Gli uccelli cantavano
sul fare del giorno comincia daccapo li sentivo dire non indugiare su ciò che è passato o su ciò che deve venire Altre guerre saranno combattute la sacra colomba sarà ancora imprigionata comprata, venduta e ricomprata colomba mai libera. Fai suonare le campane che ancora lo possono scordati la tua offerta impeccabile c’è una crepa in ogni cosa ma di lì entra la luce. Chiedemmo dei segni e ci furono inviati: la nascita rinnegata il matrimonio esausto sì, la vedovanza di ogni governo — segni visibili a tutti. Non posso più stare con quell'orda senza leggi mentre là in alto gli assassini recitano le loro preghiere ad alta voce. Ma hanno evocato una nube di tempesta e mi sentiranno, eccome. Fai suonare le campane che ancora lo possono... Puoi sommare le parti ma non avrai il totale puoi dare il via alla marcia, ma non c'è il tamburo ogni animo, ogni cuore giungerà all’amore ma lo farà da profugo. Fai suonare le campane che ancora lo possono scordati la tua offerta impeccabile c’è una crepa, una crepa in ogni cosa di lì entra la luce. Fai suonare le campane che ancora lo possono scordati la tua offerta impeccabile c’è una crepa, una crepa in ogni cosa di lì entra la luce di lì entra la luce di lì entra la luce... |
