Wednesday, April 18, 2018

A PSA (Prophetic Service Announcement)



Some poets tell it like it is. Leonard was a prophet and told it like it might well become:
At the end of the chorus Cohen sings “Hineni, hineni; I’m ready, my lord.” Hineni is Hebrew for “here I am,” and is the response Abraham gives when God calls on him to sacrifice his son Isaac. It is also the name of a prayer of preparation and humility, addressed to God, chanted by the cantor on Rosh Hashanah.  (Emphasis mine.)

The entire song is a prayer – an audacious prayer, and a terrible one. (In the old school, bronze age sense of the word "terrible".)

Is this really what you want, Lord? Darker? Really? But yeah, I guess so. Well alright then. We human beings can make that happen. Count on it – we know you do.

Cohen is of course writing near the end of his life, and one suspects that in a sense he was indeed ready. But he was writing for all of us too, and writing his sense of the zeitgeist, and where the world was headed. He saw further than most, perhaps because he was less attached to the outcomes.

As others have observed: the lights are going out all over. It seems to me Cohen perceived this as God's will; this has happened before, this testing, and it will happen again. That's the thing about Covenants. They need an Audit from time to time.

15 comments:

  1. I've stayed away from Leonard Cohen for more than two years now.

    Nothing against him, as one of the best lyricists of the current age.

    Listening to him, however, take me back to remembering personal disaster

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  2. Thank you lewy. I have been a Cohen fan ever since I first recognized I was Jewish. I don't mean Jewish as a religion, I mean Jewish in that I has a big, crooked, Jewish nose. Leonard made that okay for me. I loved him for that then and I love him for it now.

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    1. I don't mean Jewish as a religion, I mean Jewish in that I has a big, crooked, Jewish nose.

      omg. Too funny!

      There are so many things that are easy to misunderstand on the web; interestingly, this is not one of them.

      (That is to say: as much as I can, without being Jewish, I get what you mean... there are many shades to "identity"...)

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    2. lewy, the boys at school used to tease me by singing, Fay-O, Fay-O, Faylight come and she got a big nose.

      True story.

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    3. That's terrible.

      I'm laughing, but that's because I'm terrible, but you knew that.

      (That is really awful.)

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    4. Kids are awful. My front teeth were crooked when I was a child, and I was called "Fangs" for years. But I never had my own song!

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    5. That's terrible.

      Kids are awful.

      Eck, not really. When I grew up, teasing and being horrible to each other was normal. No snowflakes or participation trophies in sight.

      The girls could be just as horrible to the boys. It was all part of growing up. You gave as good as you got.

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    6. But I never had my own song!

      Hehe, I win :)

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    7. So true Fay! I never felt bullied...it's just the way it was. No snowflakes for sure. We all grew up tough and successful.

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    8. imgw:"https://i.imgur.com/tTePU15.jpg"

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  3. Most of Cohen's songs/poetry are prayers. Many people think that Dance Me To The End Of Love is a love song. Nothing could be further from the truth.

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  4. I hadn't heard that one before lewy, thanks. I love Cohen, even the dark and foreboding Cohen.

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