Looking for answers? So was the late Leonard Cohen (z"l), the song writer famous for "Hallelujah." From the makes of his last song, "You Want It Darker," Cohen was off in search of answers. Unfortunately, if L.C. finds them he won't be able to share them with us.
Great rabbis are always searching too. The famous Rabbi Lord Sacks (z"l), who was the United Kingdom's "Chief Rabbi," has a message for us all. If you aren't familiar with the song by the late Leonard Cohen, "You Want It Darker," I encourage you to listen to it first so you know what Rabbi and I am talking about.
Rabbi Sacks interprets Leonard Cohen's FINAL song -- "You Want It Darker." Rabbi arrives at a hopeful conclusion, but in doing so Rabbi dismisses Cohen's references to Yeshua as any implication of Cohen's beliefs. But they jump off the page in this verse from the first stanza:
"Vilified, crucified
In the human frame"
Cohen's allusions to Yeshua are amplified in the second stanza.
"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 idol claim"
For my Christian friends, I understand that it is hard for you to understand how Jews such as Rabbi Sacks are unwilling to accept John 3.16 being foretold in the bible story of the binding of Isaac in Genesis. Rabbi Sacks's take on L.C.'s song is a sharp illustration of the "blindness" Jews have for Yeshua which Christian's speak of.
Rabbi Sacks makes the assumption that L.C. didn't accept Yeshua and retained his Jewish identity. Maybe so. I truly can't tell what Leonard Cohen believed. But I think it is hard not to recognize that Leonard is acknowledging the role Jews played that in this verse:
"We kill the flame." Cohen speaks first person as a Jew.
What I draw from the song is that Leonard Cohen struggled to the end of his life with how a God "who so loved the world" could have allowed the Holocaust. A lot of Jews struggle with that. Jews in every century since the "sin of the spies" have struggled! We have the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av to remind us.
The lyrics of "You Want It Darker" read to me like a man handing down a indictment against God.
"They're lining up to prisoners
And the guards are taking aim
I struggle 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"
One thing that is clear to me is that when Leonard, the "Kohen" wrote You Want It Darker" he was ready to face the Creator. When he says Hineni, Cohen is saying "Here I am," take me -- L.C. was ready to meet the LORD. Cohen has had it with the darkness in the world. And, as Cohen says repeatedly "We kill the flame."
Cohen repeats the opening stanzas to end the song. This is a strong literally statement. Notice the difference in the first verse of this stanza from the beginning of the song. Cohen wants to go. And he did.
"If you are the dealer, let me out of the game
If you are the healer, I'm broken and lame
If thine is the glory, mine must be the shame
You want it darker"
Then Leonard Cohen z"l closes with both a figurative and literal expression:
"Hineni, hineni
Hineni, hineni
I'm ready, my Lord"
Leonard was looking for answers from the other side. I have to wonder if he found them. Rest in peace L.C.! Your name and songs are for a blessing.
Epilogue:
Another song by Leonard Cohen is more direct. Suzanne. Another Jewish song write and poet, Bob Dylan, got it write when he said "Gotta Serve Somebody."
