The title song of Leonard Cohen’s final album You Want It Darker (booklet here)
features the voice of Cantor Gideon Zelermyer of Congregation Shaar
Hashomayim*, singing Hineni – the words “Here I am” used three times by Abraham
in response to God in the haunting story of the binding of Isaac (Genesis 22).
The song addresses God. It is he who wants it darker but it us who kill the
flame.
Andre Salles observes,
For his entire career, Cohen has grappled with God, with his religious upbringing and his doubts and questions and longings as an adult. This album is a frank testament from an old man about to come face to face with whatever awaits him, and here he wrestles with faith like never before.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks suggests that Leonard
Cohen has given us a precise commentary on this passage. As he has done before
in Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen conflates two figures in the song. Here it is
“Abraham and Isaac, father and son, the sacrificer and the sacrifice. It’s
Abraham who says ‘Hineni’ and it is Isaac who in effect says ‘I am ready, Lord’ The second thing he does is he tracks the shape of the narrative.”
The three choruses reflect the three occurrences of Hineni in the narrative
(verses 1, 7, 11).
Rabbi Sacks suggests further that the song echoes a Rabbinic
tradition
Said Rabbi Abba: Abraham said to Him,“ I will explain my complaint before You. Yesterday, You said to me (above 21:12): ‘for in Isaac will be called your seed,’ and You retracted and said (above verse 2): ‘ Take now your son.’ Now You say to me, ‘ Do not stretch forth your hand to the lad.’
Like Abraham, Leonard Cohen rises up in protest against the
“cruelty and wilfulness of the entire story.”
“There’s a lover in the story,” sings Leonard Cohen. It is Abraham. Indeed, Genesis 22 is the first time that the word “love” appears in the Bible (verse 2). “But the story is still the same” and the paradox is this, Rabbi Sacks observes, that “out of love for God we sometimes kill in his name.”
“There’s a lover in the story,” sings Leonard Cohen. It is Abraham. Indeed, Genesis 22 is the first time that the word “love” appears in the Bible (verse 2). “But the story is still the same” and the paradox is this, Rabbi Sacks observes, that “out of love for God we sometimes kill in his name.”
“This is [Leonard Cohen’s] final message to us. He’s saying
‘God, I love you but I don’t love the world you created...I love the love that
you have for us but I don’t like the hate that so often that love gives rise
to. And if the binding of Isaac is a symbol of that faith, then ‘If you are the
dealer / I’m out of the game / If you are the healer / I’m broken and lame’.
And yet for all that Leonard Cohen continued to affirm life...in a very Jewish
way.”
“In an extraordinary gesture he takes the biggest paradox of
all, Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead...it’s a prayer for the dead but
there is not one mention of death in it, it’s all about life, it’s all about
God...Despite everything, in the face of death, Jews still praise God.”
“Even in the midst of darkness there is light. Even in the
midst of death there is life. Even in the midst of hate there is love. And even
with our dying breath we can still say Hallelujah. That is the power of love to
redeem the brokenness of the world.”
“In this final song Leonard Cohen becomes Job, arguing with
God, finding no answers to his questions but finding nonetheless the strength
to sing and to affirm.”
It is worth listening to Rabbi
Jonathan Sacks in full. Leonard Cohen has clearly gone back to his
Jewish roots for his final album. But this does not appear to be all that is
happening. The next song (Treaty) opens with “I seen you change the water into
wine” – a reference to what the Gospel of John records as Jesus’ first sign?
Later the song It Seemed the Better Way confesses that “to turn the other
cheek”
Sounded like the truth
Seemed the better way
Sounded like the truth
But it’s not the truth today
So when in the title song Leonard Cohen cites the Kaddish
(“Magnified and sanctified / Be Thy Holy Name”) and then adds “Vilified and
crucified / In the human frame” he seems to have the Christian conception of
God in view as well. There is arguably still more to explore here.
PS: Rabbi Sacks often speaks of Cohen's final words. They are arguably not those of the title song which is also the opening song of the album but from the song Treaty reprised at the end of the album, "I wish there was a treaty / between your love and mine" - addressed to the one who changed water into wine.
PS: Rabbi Sacks often speaks of Cohen's final words. They are arguably not those of the title song which is also the opening song of the album but from the song Treaty reprised at the end of the album, "I wish there was a treaty / between your love and mine" - addressed to the one who changed water into wine.
*Shaar Hashomayim is the oldest and largest traditional
Ashkenazi congregation in Canada, established in 1846. Leonard Cohen’s
grandfather and great-grandfather served as presidents of the congregation and
Cohen himself had his bar mitzvah ceremony there. It is there that Cohen
recited Kaddish for his father whom he lost when he was nine.
