#969: Hallelujah!

Welcome to the year 2024. Generally speaking, the new year brings resolutions aplenty . . . many of which will be broken within the wink of an eye. It’s not that we are being dishonest with ourselves; for many, it’s a lack of resolve. And who can blame the resolution transgressors? We live in extremely frustrating, fearfully uncomfortable and trying times. The fences, hedges and walls which divide people around the world cause many of us to quit watching the evening news and, in its place, crack open a bottle of whatever suits our taste. Peace and understanding, unity and serenity are oh so evasive. HOWEVER, from time to time we find moments of hopefulness and words of love and cheer which can - if we pay attention - act as restoratives.

Yesterday, while attending services for Shabbat (Sabbath), a restorative discovered me . . . rather than the opposite. (To be honest, I am paraphrasing one of the three women who became b’not mitzvah; she said that they [the three women] did not choose the particular Torah portion [Exodus 1:1-6:1] upon which they would be observing this marvelous rite of passage but rather, the Torah portion chose them.) How so? Simply stated this first portion in the book of Exodus (in Hebrew, Sh’mot [שְּׁמוֹת] meaning “names,” deals with 5 profoundly heroic women: the baby Moses’ mother (Yocheved), and sister (Miriam), the Pharaoh’s daughter (Bat’ya) and two midwives, (Shifra and Pua); without these women, there would be no Jews in the world today . . . Quite a portion to be shared by three b’not mitzvah!

At one point in the service, we sang together the 150th - the last - Psalm. It has no known author (To King David 73 of the 150 Psalms (תְהִילִים - pronounced t’hilim) are ascribed; it is easily the most universal, most unifying of all those poetic praises to G-d. In this psalm of 6 verses, 13 times we find the words created from the Hebrew root ה-ל-ל (the root means “praise”), from which we get the word “Halleluyah,” literally meaning “G-d be praised.” (Now mind you, there is a perhaps unintended coincidence here; according to Jewish law, there are precisely 613 mitzvot (commandments) in the Torah. Put 6 verses together with the 13 times the root ה-ל-ל is used and voila! You get 613. Brrrr.) During the more than six decades of chanting this psalm in shul, I have been accustomed to a single melody . . . likely the same one my grandfathers (Yussel and Issac) and their grandfathers sang more than 150 years ago.

But not this time. For this service, the Cantor (חזנית), Debbie Hafetz, a woman with a voice of gold and a soul of rhodium (the most valuable metal on earth), said we would be singing it to the tune of Leonard Cohen’s song entitled, simply, Hallelujah. It both knocked my socks off and brought copious tears to my eyes. Putting these Hebrew words together with Cohen’s emotional musical score was about as restorative a moment as one might hope for in these deeply troubling times. Let’s explore several versions of this song, using both the original Hebrew words from the Bible, and Leonard Cohen’s English creation.

First, Central Synagogue’s Cantor Azi Schwartz singing the original Hebrew text of the 150th Psalm to Leonard Cohen’s melody. Even if you do not know the words in Hebrew - let alone another language - I think it just might move you. And, as the French say, n'ayez pas peur de sortir vos mouchoirs: “Don’t be afraid to take out your handkerchiefs.”

To the best of my knowledge, there are only 2 words in the more than 7,000 tongues spoken on this planet which are the same . . . and both are Hebrew: AMEN and HALLELUJAH. The first means something akin to “I AGREE,” the second, as mentioned above “Praised be G-d.” (According to Jewish oral tradition, AMEN is actually an acronym for the three Hebrew letter aleph (א), mem (מ) and final nun (ן) which stand for ayl melekh ne-ehmahn, meaning “G-d is a faithful King.” Yes, both are a tad too theistic for some, regardless of their tongue or religious (or lack of) belief. But nonetheless, they are the two unifying words which bind us together.

Leonard Cohen originally wrote lyrics to his Hallelujah (1984). It easily became his most famous song. What follows is the legendary guitarist Jeff Buckley singing Cohn’s English lyrics, while accompanying himself on his instrument.

Next, a Hebrew/English version of Cohen’s lyrics as performed by Yechiel Erps, a Chasid with an MS in speech pathology and a great deal of musical talent:

Indeed, this is a universal song with universal meaning. I would be remiss if I were not to include Cohen’s universal son sung in, amazingly, English, Hebrew and Arabic. Could there eventually be a hope for peace?

And last, but not least, Cohen's “Halleuljah” in one of his native languages: Yiddish. Cohen was born and raised in a family of Orthodox Jews in the wealthy enclave of Westmont, Quebec. His native languages were French and Yiddish. Until the end of his life, despite exploring almost every religion on earth, he remained a practicing Jew, who would forego concerts on Friday nights. His ideal was what is known in Hebrew as ‘‘pekuakh nefesh,” repairing the world. May his epitaph be this song, and may this song, some 3,500 years in the making, be a restorative for a world badly fractured and in need of repair. For when all is said and done, isn’t this what all Abrahamic religions seek most?

Can you say - or sing - Hallelujah with meaning?